The Fairy Trilogy 1: The Fairy In Blue
by wolfrunnerable12
Summary: Book 1/3. Loke and Lucy are in a new relationship. But when Lucy wakes up one morning, she finds things not exactly as they should be. To prove she's different then Karen, Lucy makes a contract with Loke without Karen's knowledge.
1. About

Well it's official...Lucy has finally given in and agreed to go on a date with Loke, which ended up sparking a full fledged romance between the spirit and Celestial Wizard. Not that any of the other Celestial Spirits or members of Fairy Tail expected anything less though.

But when Lucy wakes up one morning, she finds things not exactly as they should be. The Blue Pegasus mark replaces her light pink Fairy Tail mark...Gemini's, Scorpio's, Aries's and even Loke's keys are missing...and It turns out she's a famous Celestial Wizard who happens to be one half of a Celestial Duo that happens to include another certain Celestial Spirit Wizard that Lucy only heard about.

Will things ever be the same in the blond wizard's life?

What about her fledgling relationship with Loke?


	2. The Fairy In Blue

**Welcome everyone to the very first chapter! There really aren't enough of this pariing to my liking and I don't think they have as much love as they could in the anime, so this one is for Lucy and Loke! I hope all of you guys enjoy this one! Have fun reading and please tell me what you guys think with your reviews too! This is from Lucy's POV. Enjoy!~**

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I had just come out of the bathtub from soaking in it with Plue for a full hour and a half untill the once warm water turned almost icy cold on my bare skin. The steam that had collected on the mirrior above my sink was now reduced to mere water droplets as the surged down towards the white polished sink and silver faucet. I sighed and sat up with my dripping wet blond locks falling around me, glued by the water to the back of my neck and shoulders. I looked at Plue sitting in the bath across from me and couldn't help but stiffle a giggle when I noticed how dropy he looked compared to how wrinkly my finger tips and toes felt. "I think an hour and a half long soak is enough for one night, don't you think so Plue?", I asked the small Celestial Spirit.

Plue held up his paw and made a sighing like sound as he nodded in agreement.

Taking that as my cue, I stood up and wrung my hair out while I was still standing in the bath so that I would get the room floor as little wet as possible. Then I gingerly stepped out of the bath and onto the towel I had placed on the bathroom floor to use a carpet. I wrapped my still damp hair in a towel before picking out a fluffy white one to wrap it around my body, warming me up almost instently. As I was busy wrapping another smaller white towel around Plue, I heard what sounded like footsteps coming from the main part of my apartment outside the closed bathroom door. I grumbled to myself irritated think that it was more then likely Erza, Gray or Natsu and Happy as per useuall. They were always randomly showing up in my apartment like that, and though I was used to it by now but that didn't mean I didn't find it any less irritating.

Making sure that my own towel was well secured around me, I picked up the Nikora and opened the bathroom door to step out into the main room of the apartment. "What did I tell you guys about barging into someone's house like this!?", I sighed and looked up expecting to see my teamates sitting around the coffee table waving a greeting to me like nothing was wrong.

It was wishful thinking, but I wasn't so lucky.

"Unfortunetly there is a difference between me, Erza, Natsu and Gray.", came an all too familiar voice that made me freeze and colored my face with bright pink heat at the same time all at once, "You're dating me remember? That shade of pink on your cheeks is lovely by the way."

"LOKE! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THIS! YOU'RE JUST AS BAD AS NATSU AND GRAY SOMETIMES!", I yelled at the orange haired Celestial Spirit as I snatched my clothes off of the near by dresser and ran back into the bathroom slamming the door behind me. Thus effectivly leaving Plue and Loke in the main part of the apartment and locking myself in the bathroom, before sliding to the base of the door. I leaned against the door easing my breathing and trying to make the pink flush from my cheeks disappear. After a minute of catching my breath I hung the towel on the towel bar and started to get dressed in an embarassment-driven fury.

Of course it had to be Loke!

Dating the spirit or not, I would have prefered it been one of my teamates then the orange haired guy. Moments like this had the tendency to make fighting together later on awkward and a liable target as a joke or taunt for Aquarius...not that the mermaid spirit needed any more inspiration to mess with me about Loke and mine relationship.

I could hear his slight laughing through the closed door as I adjusted my top. "Sorry Lucy, really I am. But if you know the others just walk into your apartment then why not take your clothes into the bathroom with you instead of leaving them out here?", he started questioning me. Then, "Especially when you know we have a date tonight."

When I was finally dressed in my typical attire and had tidied up the bathroom a bit, I pushed the bathroom door open again and crossed my arms looking at Loke. "The point is to not need to do that in my own apartment.", I pointed out, "And would you knock it off? You're starting to sound a bit like Aquarius." I walked over to the orange haired spirit and relaxed a bit before looking at Plue smiling and waving, "See yeah later Plue."

Plue waved back nodding before poofing away back to the Spirit World and I turned to look back at Loke again. "So where exactly are you taking me?", I asked curious trying to figure him out without any kind of luck.

"If I told you that would ruin the surprise.", Loke replied as we headed out of the apartment together and down the streets of Magnolia Town.

The next morning I opened my eyes moaning as the sunlight filtering into the room nearly blinded me, causing me to reach up and rub the sleep from my eyes. Loke and I had had a long dinner and walk around Magnolia last night and I was paying for it now. It was nice but it left me wondering if maybe we should cut our dates a little shorter every once and awhile. Just enough so that we both had enough rest for whatever job we went on the next day. I pushed myself up into the sitting up position and ran my hands over the unfamilier material of the piece of furniture that I was sitting on. But I shrugged it off realizing that I must have passed out on my couch last night after getting back to the apartment.

I was still half asleep when I heard a rather loud knocking at the door to my apartment and let loose a long yawn, "Come in! It's unlocked!", I called standing up to streach and bend a little bit to try and wake myself up before heading to the guild with Natsu and Happy that morning. I reached out and snatched my whip and leather key pouch from the coffee table in front of the couch, before attaching both to their normal places on my belt at either of my hips.

Everything was going as normal utill I heard the person that walked into the apartment speak with a clear female voice instead of the expected male tone. I spun around to face the strange-sounding Natsu and a shiver ran up my spine.

"Come on Lucy, are you seriously still asleep? I had thought we'd agreed that we'd leave early this morning to go to the salon so that we'd look at least half way decent on our night out with Hibiki and Ren tonight. Or did you forget that we have dinner reservations at seven thirty too? I don't need to remind you of the Steller Sister's reputation being at stake here do I? We have an image to uphold.", the women stood their in my apartment doorway staring at me crossing her arms and leaning agaisnt the door frame.

I just stood there in the room staring speechless at the women in my doorway with my mouth hanging on the floor. There was no way this could be happening, none at all. The full grown women's long green hair caped by a blue hat with white pegasus wings on the front. The bra she used as a top with wings on the front and almost cape like fur lined clong sleeved coat and the knee-length skirt to match.

This women standing in my doorway was my teamate...Karen Lilica.


	3. Of Lions And Lambs Part One

**Welcome back you guys and thaks for fallowing and reviewing (if you are/did). Anyway here is the second chapter of the fanfic. I wont lie when I said that I had a fairly hard time trying to figure out how to turn Loke's flashback that lasts about two minutes into a whole stinking fanfiction, but I think I finally know how and I already have the ending planned out too! Enjoy!~**

I fallowed Karen out of my apartment as both of us headed for the Blue Pegasus Guild Hall with her. I had no idea exactly how, but the way my feet were taking it felt like routine to walk this way through the town streets. Boring almost and that worried me. My eyes were glued to the back of my palm where the light blue Blue Pegases Guild Stamp replaced my light pink Fairy Tail Guild Stamp. Luckily the only change to my clothing was a star pendent around my neck that I just noticed matched the same one Karen carried around her own neck only mine was silver and her's was a pale gold and both looked like they would cost a pretty amount of jewels to purchase.

When Karen and I walked into the Blue Pegasus Guild Hall, Master Bob glanced over at us as we walked into the room, closely fallowed by a gang of guys all staring at us with hearts in their eyes like lost puppies. "My my Karen my dear you certainly have quite the fallowing...and Lucy love looks like you've attracted a few gentlemen of your own. It seems like only yesterday you two became a team. You've both are quite a name for yourselves in that short time haven't you?", Master Bob smiles at Karen and me as he dried a wine glass behind the bar.

One of the guys got a little to close to me for comfort so I did what any girl would normally do, I punched him and sent him falling to the ground. "Beat it perv!", I yelled at the knocked out guy sprawled out on the floor with a pink tint to my face and eyes narrowed,"I already have a boyfriend so stay away from me or I'll make you sorry!" Apparently my little outburst didn't go unnoticed, because I looked up away from the knocked out guy and found the faces of the Blue Pegasus Master Bob, Karen and several other people in the room staring at me in stunned and unsure silence. I started to have the feeling that I had just messed up like an idiot. I wanted to point out that Karen and I hadn't been partners for more then thirty minutes and that Karen wasnt even supposed to be alive, but thought better of it at the last minute.

Lucky for me that Karen seemed to just brushing the outburst off like it wasn't a big deal. She sighed and crossed her arms shaking her head,"Sorry boys but we have an appointment at the salon this afternoon. Why not come back and see us later?"

The boys moaned in disappointment.

"Later!?", I sqeueled not wanting any of these guys around period. Heck I wasn't even supposed to be there!

Then the other Celestial Wizard looked at me,"Must I teach you everything? There's an easier way for dealing with situations like these hon...a women shouldn't have to lie.", the Celestial Spirit Wizard replied as she pulled out a golden gate key from her sleeve. "We don't have time for this. Open! Gate of the Golden Ram! Aries!", the women yelled as she wiped the gate key through the air.

This Aries was a different Aries then the one I was used to. Sure the Aries I knew was timid and soft-spoken, but this pink haired ram spirit looked down right afraid of Karen. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was trembling a bit and looked at the green haired wizard nervously. "I'm sorry ma'am. Did you summon me?", the ram spirit asked Karen in a timid unsure soft tone. The heart shaped eyes automatically traveled from my partner and I to the Celestial Spirit the moment she was summoned.

"Look Lucy and I have to run, so would you entertain these gentlemen for us?"

"No not that again! Please don't make me do this!"

The green haired wizard glared at the spirit,"You're not refusing to fallow an order are you!?"

"No of course not ma'am!"

Karen backed off and nodded,"Good. Come on Lucy, we're going to be late." The celestial Wizard started to walk off like nothing out of the ordinary had happened just now. She stopped and turned to look at me raising an eyebrow when she noticed I wasnt fallowing her. "Lucy? What are just standing there for? Let's go.", she demanded.

I watched the place the Celestial Spirit and men had disappeared before looking up at Karen, "Um you go ahead Karen without me, I think I'll just take a nice hot bath on my own instead.", I replied before turning on my heel and leaving the confussed wizard behind me. I ran down the halls of the guild untill I spotted the guys and Aries not too far ahead of me, before whistling to catch their attention. When they turned around to look at me I acted and reached into my leather key pouch to pull out Virgo's key,"Open! Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!", I yelled with a grin.

As expected the guys nearly swooned over Virgo when she showed up in her typical maid's attire...I swore these Blue Pegasus guys would go for any little number in a skirt. Virgo ignored them though and made a bowing motion towards me,"Is there something I can help you with Princess?"

I crossed my arms and pointed to the men around a confussed, unsure Aries. "They need to be punished.", I replied knowing that the spirit would know what I meant by punished.

"As you wish Princess.", The Maiden bowed creating a magic circle under her feet and disappeared into a hole she made in the ground. The next moment the ground started to shake shortly before the floor underneath the men with Aries collapsed in on itself startling the ram spirit. Virgo reappeared beside the other pink haired female spirit with her hands sitting in front of her neatly, "Anything else Princess?", she asked me with a smile.

I placed a hand on my hip and shook my head, hoping that Master Bob didn't mind a single large hole in the middle of the floor in his guild hall too much. "No but thanks for the help Virgo.", replied holding up a hand in good-bye to the spirit.

"Very well then, I'll be going then.", Virgo bowed one last time and smiled at Aries before disappearing back to the Celestial World.

I walked over to Aries keeping a warm smile on my face and replaced Virgo's key back into my leather pouch. "Sorry about that, but a pit fall trap like that was the first thing I thought of. I'm sorry I didn't do anything before to stop Karen, but now you can go back to the Spirit World and she doesn't have to know.", I held out my hand for the brown eyed spirit to shake and kept my other hand resting behind my back.

The female pink haired spirit eyed my out streached hand and them looked back up at me shaking my hand hesitently. "T-thank you..um you're Lucy right? I've heard a lot about you from Taurus and Virgo, but why did you do that? It's not that I'm not ungreatfull or anything it's just...well.." Aries let go of my hand and looked away trying to come up with the words to explain what she was trying to say.

She had heard a lot about me from Virgo and Taurus? Of all the Celestial Spirits it had to be those two. I sighed wondering now what they could have told Aries about me now. I shook my head and grinned shooting her a thumbs up, "No worries. Really it's not a big deal, I've been wanting to get away from Karen since this morning anyway and helping you was a plus. I'm just glad you're okay, but you should really be heading back before Karen walks out and sees you here. Can you do me a favor and thank Virgo for me again though?", I asked the spirit.

Aries blinked and blushed a bit before cracking a small half-smile, "Um..y-yes. Thank you again Lucy. You really shouldn't have done that. Good-bye.", and with that the ram spirit disappeared.

I watched Aries leave and let out a sigh of relief at having managed to help the spirit after all. Rubbing my head knowing that I didnt have time for investigating what had happened or why it had happened, I walked back to my apartment to get ready for my double date with Karen tonight. Maybe I could get a couple answers about what was going on there.

**Yes okay you will all get to see Loke again I promise...actually he's in the next chapter to be more spacific. He WAS supposed to be in this chapter, but the whole scene with Aries and Lucy kind of streached what I had planned further then expected so I mande thsi chapter a two part. Hope you all don't mind!**


	4. Of Lions And Lambs Part Two

**Here is the second part! Aslo...please note that I have come up with a plot for a sequel to this, I couldn't help it. But please enjoy this fanfiction for now!~**

My day switched from eventful, to confussing, to semi-normal and eventful again all in the course of a single day. At seven twenty-five there was a knock at the apartment door and I opened it to find Ren Akatsuki...The Trimens Air Wizard...standing at the door waiting for me in a black suit with a red shirt and black tie around his neck. He wasn't alone either. Behind the black haired wizard I noticed Karen standing there in light blue gown with a pair of her normal red heels with the orange haired Hibiki beside her.

I had opened my closet earlier to find it packed with nice clothes that I had no memory of buying or wearing before, but reached for the first thing that cought my eye. That turned out to be the long red dress with thin straps, low cut but not too much so in the front and a small modest slit up the side of my leg from the end ofthe dress skirt to my knee. My back and shoulders were exposed, but I grabed a light creamy gold shawl I found in one of my dresser drawers and grabed a purse. As useuall I made sure to bring my gate keys and whip along, but I kept the whip tucked into my bag this time.

Most of the double date wasn't that bad. Hibiki and Ren took Karen and I to a rather expensive restaurant they had, appearently, taken both of us on double dates with hem there before. I watched Karen and Hibiki for mostof the dinner stunned at how gentle and care-free the green haired older Celestial Wizard had become since we left my apartment on the date. They looked so happy together with the orange haired Archive Magic wizard leaning over to whisper something in my partner's ear causing her to laugh. Was this really the wizard I was horrified to learn about how she treated her Celstial Spirits? The women that had treated Aries like a thing instead of a being with feelings and thoughts of her own earlier that day? Unless I had heard about what Karen had done then I never would have guessedthat the two were actually the same person. Karen might have her own fanclub of guys fallowing her around like a buunch of lost puppies, but it looked like she had something special with the Trimen member.

Needless to say that I was actually having a good time and managed to make it past the chicken main dish, untill Karen managed to start in on the topic of our last job request which then lead to the topic of her Celestial Spirits. Unable to listen to anymore of Karen's complaints of her disobidiante Celestial Spirits, I stood up from my seat and grabed my shawl and sluung my bag over my shoulder. I knew that my reaction was childish but I had what I could handle without lashing out at the green haired women. I tucked a strand of my blond hair behind an ear and met the looks of my new guildmates, "I'm sorry but I've got to go, I'm not feeling so well.", the lie was pathetic and I knew it, but it was the first thing that poped into my head.

Karen narrowed her eyes at me and held eye contact with me before sighing. "Fine. You've been acting so weird lately Lucy, that I feel like I don't know you anymore. Hopefully some rest will get your head in the game before our next job.", she said.

I nodded and was about to go when ren stood up and offered me his arm, "Please. Let me take you back to your apartment Lucy."

"No!", I backed away from the Air Wizard and answered him a bit quicker then I really meant to. This caught several people's attention around our table and heat instantly colored my cheeks. I tried to recover my mistake, "Thanks for the offer Ren, but I'll be okay walking to my apartment. thanks for dinner though. It was nice." Then I turned to my partner, "I'll see you tommarow Karen, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Just a migraine. Night." I waved one more time to my guildmates and left to go back to my apartment and lay down.

I hadn't been laying down on the couch very long when I heard a loud knocking on the door to my apartment. I growled in frustration not wanting to be distracted from the little free time I had so far away from Karen to sit and figure out what was going on. If it was Karen coming to scold me or Ren coming to try and sweet talk me then I wasn't interested. Ren was a sweet guy, but he was as annoying as Natsu was at times but in a different way and Karen was just...I had no idea. I don't think I really hated her as much as I did Angel, but being around her still made me sick to my stomach and I was her partner on top of it. Aries was terrified of her and the women just didn't care for crying outloud.

My red heels that matched my teamate's heels were strewn carelessly to teh side when I first walked into the apartment door, with the result being one of the shoes now stuck out partically from behind a lamp and the wall and the other I really didn't care where it was. I had pulled out my hair from it's neat yellow bun and let it lay loose not caring if it covered my eyes or not. I didn't even have enough energy at that point where I felt like summoning Plue or drawing myself a warm bath for as much as I wanted one. The result of all of this being I stayed where I was on the leather couch and yelled irritably in response to the knocking, "Go away Ren! Karen! If you ever so much as take a step inside this apartment, you're dead!", I tried to do the best Erza impression I could manage in my worn state.

Apparently it wasn't my best, because the moment after I yelled for Ren to go away I heard the door open and close and footsteps approach the couch.

Calm, meassured footsteps.

Not in the mood for messing around with one of the Trimens at the moment, I pulled myself up into a sitting position and removed Aquarius's key from my key pouch. I peeked over the edge of the couch and held the Zodiac key up in a threatening manor glaring, "So help me Ren if you don't get you're butt out of my apartment right now, I'm going to have Aquarius throw you out!", I yelled.

"You're going to summon Aquarius without any water Lucy? We both know that's not possible and won't she just throw you out of the room with me?", the footsteps stoped and my mouth fell open, my shock causing me to accidently drop Aquarius's key without realizing it. I watched the figure in the suit remove a hand from his pocket and reach down to pick the gate key up again off of the floor.

I stood there and blinked surprised that I didn't recognize the voice at first right away, and eyed my apartment intruder. I knew who it was but he seemed different...like how Aries was different from how I knew her. The suit with the white dress shirt and solid red tie, one hand in a pocket and the other holding out Aquarius's key for me to take, hazel eyes and orange hair spiked framing his face. His face was hard set and serious instead of the normal calm playfull expression it had only the night before on our date. Only other thing out of place was the fact that the glasses were missing.

Not thinking about the situation my face brightened,"Loke!", I yelled.


	5. Answers

**Hey you guys, here is the next chapter! I am having so much fun with this fanfiction and my Stars Align one to. But please let me know if ANYTHING seems out of character to you as far as the Celestial Spirits, Karen or Lucy go okay? Thanks and enjoy! This is a bit of a Loke/Lucy moment.~**

Not thinking about the situation I was in, my face brightened up as soon as I saw the orange haired spirit,"Loke! Am I glad to see you!" Seeing Loke again was like a breath of freash air...something I recognized and could use as a reliable foundation for my thoughts. I was so relieved to see him, that it took a couple of minutes before I remembered that he was still Karen's Celestial Spirit and he, by the raised eyebrow, had no idea what was going on. I silently cursed myself for letting my feelings get the better of me and jumping ahead without thinking first. I felt the color drain from my face as I started scolding myself for how stupid I was. I tried to recover from the mistake,"I mean...agh..what are you doing here? I'm not going back to that restraunt with Karen if that's what you're going to tell me."

The spirit narrowed his eyes more and I flinched knowing that was the wrong thing to say again. I was getting tiered of always making the wrong move and it was starting to drive me crazy. "Look Lok...I mean Leo...I'm", I started but the lion spirit stopped me mid sentence.

"I'm not here because Karen wants to talk to you, I'm here because I want to talk to you.", the orange haired spirit said walking into the apartment and closing the door behind him.

I walked out of the kitchen and into the main part of my apartment carrying two steaming tea cups. As I walked back into the main part of the apartment Plue was clutching my neck riding on my back and I stoped placing the cups on the table. When the lion spirit showed up out of no where as useuall, I imedietly walked into my room and changed out of my evening where. It just didn't feel normal for me to be wearing such nice clothing around the apartment in. So I fixed it by changing into an tank top and pair of shorts I found by a mere stroke of luck. Feeling better, I sat across from Loke and picked up my tea mug before nercously clearing my throught, "So. You said that you wanted to talk to me and not Karen earlier...can I ask what about?"

"You first.", said Loke catching me off gaurd.

I looked at him confussed and lowered my mug, "What?"

The Celestial Spirit sighed, "Look. I can tell something's bothering you and your clearly different from other Celestial Wizards, so you go first. You might actually give me the answers I'm looking for if you do."

I nodded, "I just don't get what Karen's deal is with me."

Loke leaned back in his seat and kept his hard narrowed eyes on me, " What do you mean what's the deal with you and Karen? You two have been teamates and friends for the past two years ever since you first showed up around here with Plue. After you guys met and realized you were both Celestial Wizards, you formed the Steller Sisters and you've been together ever since. What more are you looking for? Though by the looks of it Karen's jealous of you and that's not an easy feat.", he replied.

I sat there holding the half empty tea cup and blinked. The Karen Lilica was jelous of me of all people? It sounded so rediculus to me that I really didn't believe it and laughed shaking my head, "Karen's jelous of me? Yeah that's a good one. Why would she be jelous of me, when the only reason I'm famous is beacause I'm her teamate and I'm not even supposed to be here? I'm not supposed to be a member of Blue Pegasus, I'm supposed to be in a different guild. I've been a member of Fairy Tail for the past nine years! How can I be a member of a different guild for two years, be partners with Karen Lilica of all people and be dating a member of The Trimens when everything I remember is completly different and goes against everything that has happened sjust since I woke up earlier this morning? This is completly messed up." Needless to say I was ready to pull my hair out because the whole situation. What I didn't tell Loke was the fact that, along with my normal memories of my life as a Fairy Tail Wizard, there were a few scattered memories from my supposed two years as a member of Blue Pegasus to adding to the massive headache that was slowly mounting in my head. I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes moaning in irritation.

I could feel Loke watching me closely, but I ignored him for now. Memories of past missions with Karen mingled with the ones I had of missions with Gray, Erza, Natsu and Happy. They, along with other memories flashed into my head one right after the other in rapid movement:

_I glared at the masked gaurds all giddy that I was in my bikini fighting, as I pulled out Virgo's Gate Key and swiped it through the air. "Open! Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!"_

_"You summoned me Princess?", Virgo asked as the gaurds started staring at her with hearts in their eyes instead of me now._

_I pointed at the gaurds annoyed, "These pervs need to be punished."_

_"As you wish.", said the maid uniform clad spirit before taking the gaurds out before the scene changed suddenly._

_Now, instead of fighting under the Tower of Heaven, I was standing beside Karen in front of who I somehow knew to be a Gravity Wizard. I removed two golden keys from my leather pouch and my whip at the same time, before summoning Capricorn and then fallowed by summoning Taurus. I jumped into the air and brought my whip down hard on the Gravity Wizard at the same time Capricorn nailed the guy in the stomach with a well aimed punch. _

_The guy tried jumping to get away, but I cought his ankle with my whip and threw him into the goat spirit's attack. _

_The wizard sent an attack at Karen, who countered by summoning Aries to use as a sheild, but I cought the move on time. After landing on my feet I turned around, "Taurus!", I yelled knowing Capricorn and I couldn't reach Aries in time but Taurus was closer to her and Karen then we were...he could make it easily._

_The bull nodded and jumped in front of Aries managing to block the attack from hitting the ram spirit with his axe to hit back at the Gravity Wizard in a single stroke._

I opened my eyes refocused around the apartment, before settling my eyes on Loke sitting across the coffee table from me again. "Wait a minute, so that's why you said I was different from other Celestial Wizards? Because I cared about Aries during that fight with the Gravity Wizard?", I asked the spirit, "And let me guess but that wasn't the first time either. I'm guessing Karen was pretty angry with me for that right?"

The orange haired lion spirit nodded, "You've always cared about your spirits before, but recently you started caring about me and Aries even though we're not your spirits. You've locked horns with Karen once or twice over it, which resulted in the Steller Sisters temporarily being disbanded for a couple weeks. You were the one that came back and appologized to Karen though you had no reason to." Loke paused for a minute before standing up from his seat as I did the same, "The spirits in our world like you Lucy and you can summon more then one spirit at a time, if I had to guess I'd say that's why Karen is jelous of you. But what I want to know is why you seem to care so much for a spirit that isn't your own?"

So now he wanted to know why I cared about him and Aries? Seriously? What was I supposed to say? That he and Aries were my spirits and that he and I were dating? If he didn't think I was weird before now, Loke would think I was insane if I told him the truth. So I decided to stick with the simple part of the truth. I walked over to the Celestial Spirit and locked eyes with him...determined brown meeting hard hazel. "Because Leo.", I started, "I like to treat Celestial Spirits for what they are...partners and friends and I never let down a friend or teamate."

**Not feeling super strongly about this chapter...was it okay?**

**Okay just for a little information...Lucy is eighteen even though she has been in Fairy Tail for nine years. How is this possible you ask? Easy. It's called the seven year time skip in which nobody inside Fairy Sphere aged. Lucy joined the guild at, I am assuming by appearences here mind you since wiki doesn't say and it's never really mentioned to my current knowledge, seventeen. That year plus the seven year time skip is eight. Tack on an extra year for things to cool down before the fanfiction starts and you have nine years with Lucy being eighteen.**


	6. Partners In Crime

**EDITED THIS CHAPTER!**

**Okay so I thought that it would be fun, and a great gateway to romance, if I had Lucy and Loke team up in a way to protect Aries from Karen's maltreatment. Honestly it was a random thought I had after reading the last part of the last chapter and it made sense to me. Kind of "cover your butt from all sides" kind of idea you know. Plus again...great gateway for romance! Enjoy!~**

I opened my eyes refocused around the apartment, before settling my eyes on Loke sitting across the coffee table from me again. "Wait a minute, so that's why you said I was different from other Celestial Wizards? Because I cared about Aries during that fight with the Gravity Wizard?", I asked the spirit, "And let me guess but that wasn't the first time either. I'm guessing Karen was pretty angry with me for that right?"

The orange haired lion spirit nodded, "You've always cared about your spirits before, but recently you started caring about me and Aries even though we're not your spirits. You've locked horns with Karen once or twice over it, which resulted in the Steller Sisters temporarily being disbanded for a couple weeks. You were the one that came back and appologized to Karen though you had no reason to." Loke paused for a minute before standing up from his seat as I did the same, "The spirits in our world like you Lucy and you can summon more then one spirit at a time, if I had to guess I'd say that's why Karen is jelous of you. But what I want to know is why you seem to care so much for a spirit that isn't your own?"

So now he wanted to know why I cared about him and Aries? Seriously? What was I supposed to say? That he and Aries were my spirits and that he and I were dating? If he didn't think I was weird before now, Loke would think I was insane if I told him the truth. So I decided to stick with the simple part of the truth. I walked over to the Celestial Spirit and locked eyes with him...determined brown meeting hard hazel. "Because Leo.", I started, "I like to treat Celestial Spirits for what they are...partners and friends and I never let down a friend or teamate."

Loke didn't back off or flinch despite how close we were standing. Instead he kept his steady hazel eyes locked on me, studying me for I have no idea what. For the first time since I met him, I actually found Loke intimidating. This close to him with him being this serious it was easy to see him as the leader of the Twelve Zodiac Gates. I'd only seen the orange haired spirit act like this twice before: once when he fought Aries when she, along with Scorpio and Gemini, were still contracted to Angel. The other against Capricorn when he snapped at me, Cana and Gray to go after the remaining Grimore Heart Members during the S-Class Exams on Tenrou Island. "If you're sincere about spirits being more to you then just magic tools, then make me believe you're different then other Celestial Wizards.", Loke finally spoke in a firm tone holding out his hand to me, "Because right now you're still not that different from Karen. Try to prove me wrong."

I blinked and looked down at the Celestial Spirit's extended in understanding. The lion spirit wanted me to help him keep Karen from abusing Aries. Of course it was obvious that I'd have to regain his trust all over again, but if I did it once without realizing it then how hard could it be if I tried? Without hesitation I reached out and shook Loke's hand nodding, "You know, you didn't have to ask for my help. I would have done it anyway." Silence fell over the apartment as Loke and I just stood there eyeing each other for a minute, only a few inches apart. Relaizing this I quickly backed off and regained my line of thought, "So umm...what exactly were you thinking for keeping Karen off of Aries?", I asked turning away to keep my sudden nerves hidden.

The spirit turned away and sighed, "I'm not exactly sure yet, but as long as I'm here Karen won't be able to summon Aries. The only problem with that is I can't stay here permanently even if I used my own magic to get here. Once I leave, knowing Karen, she'll just summon Aries again. Plus we're both still contracted to her and I wouldn't put it past Karen to hold that at least over Aries's head."

I nooded only knowing too well what would happen if any Celestial Spirit stayed in EathLand for too long and just how binding a contract was. Loke was one thing, but Aries wasn't the type of spirit to ignore or not obey an order from her wizard...I've seen just how far that kind of loyalty could go before. Plus I knew Loke was right abut Karen summoning Aries again once he left back into the Spirit World. Luckily I didn't have those same limitations considering I was human. "But I don't have those kinds of limitations.", I said, "Don't forget you're not doing this on your own anymore, I promised I'd help and I never go back on my promises. I can keep Karen busy or, when she does summon Aries, I can help her like I did earlier in the salon. I'm not the onlyone willing to help after all.", I smiled.

Me and the Celstial Spirit looked at each other in silence for a moment, before there was a rather loud knock on the door.

"Lucy!? Lucy open up!"

"It's Karen allright. She's probly going to talk to me about earlier at the restaurant with Ren!", I shreiked trying to come up with a good excuse.

"I've taken care of that, just relax. I'll see you Lucy.", I looked at Loke raising a questioning eyebrow not understanding what he menat, before I watched him disappear.

By the time Karen strood into my apartment Loke had left only seconds before. After closing the door behind her and crossing her arms eyeing me the older Celestial Wizard started in on me. "What was that about? You never run out on a date like that before, sick or not. If you're tiered of Ren just say so and pick another guy. I'll have one for you within two days.", she said.

Well now I knew where Loke got his thing for going on dates with different girls. I needed some kind of explination and the lion spirit's cryptic words or the truth wasn't going to cut it either. I flicked my gaze down at the coffee table and noticed a piece of paper sticking out from under my empty tea mug. I picked up the sudden appearence and eyed it knowing exactly where this job request came from almost instantly, before silently thaking Loke. I held the flier out to the older Celestial Wizard to take, "Oh it's just that...I remembered this job I saw earlier and wanted to grab it before someone else could. Something about escorting a wealthy man that's a member of a merchant guild in Oshibana and his family to a town in Enca, apparently he's had a couple of threats from some unkown sources and wants guild wizard protection."

Karen took the job flier from me and scanned it over with her eyes. As karen read the flier I thought about the job request for a minute before the realization of the job hit me. I scowled a bit. Loke was using the escort job to test me, or at least that was what made sense anyway. I should have seen this coming. "I thought that we could leave first thing tommarow morning, get on the earliest train to Oshibana and meet the client and his family as soon as we reached the town.", I added smiling, "Oshibana isn't that far."

"Enca? It's a little odd to ask a guild for an escort job that far away, it makes you wonder what kind of threats this guy has been getting lately.", added Karen before she looked up from the request at me, "Allright. Let's pack tomight and get some rest. We're leaving on the earliest train we can get to Oshibana in the morning. Nice choice Lucy. It's reassuring to see you back to your old self again."

I gave my teamate a half-hearted smile.


	7. Early Morning Travels

**Okay listen up you guys. I hate Karen Lilica as much as the next person HOWEVER, I thought it would be interesting to maybe try and show anouther side of Karen towards her fellow guildmates...well at least her younger partner Lucy. So yes I am having Karen treat Lucy in a surprisingly caring fashion for that very reason. I'm sorry if you don't like it but that's the way I wrote it. Please don't hurt me for giving her a soul when it comes to Lucy and treat the blond main female character like a mother would her daughter or a mentor their apprentice. As always I have my reasons that won't become aparent to the end and yes it has to do with helping Loke and Lucy's relationship along...all this Karen and Lucy bonding stuff. **

**Besides there has to be something there for Hibiki to latch onto other then a word I will not type on . ...at least I hope so...**

**I hope you all enjoy though!~**

* * *

I felt dead on my feet.

There wasn't any other way I could think of to describe how I felt that morning trudging heavy-footed up the steps to the train station with Karen. Apparently first thing in the morning in Karen's thoughts meant just after the sun had risen in the sky above the town kind of early. I had to search through my closet for something I didn't mind traveling in and that I reconized. It took a little bit of time and making my partner impatent but I was totally relieved when I finally found something I didn't have a problem wearing and pulled it out before slamming my closet doors shut. After pulling on my sleeved blue shirt and a white mini skirt, I pulled on my brown boots, put my blond hair up, grabbed by whip, placed my pouch with my gate keys on my belt and locked up to go meet my partner. Twenty minutes later and I was sitting on the train holding Plue in my lap with Karen, as the locomotive whistled and started to move along the train tracks towards Oshibana.

I kept a loose hold on the shivering Plue as the train graduly worked it's speed up and came to settle at it's normal speed that would get us to Oshibana within an hour. I stared out the window for a couple minutes allowing my mind to drift. I stared out at the passing green blurs I knew were trees, bushes and grass as the train clacked over the rail tracks. I was actually kind of excited. I had only ever been to the town once and even then all I was able to remember was the inside of the train station. Then again that was only for a little while during a job that covered Oshibana and the town of Clover a ways up along the train tracks. I would have loved to see more of the town and hoped that maybe this time I would get to, though my partner and I both timed the job so that we'd finish within twenty four hours... But jobs were always unpredictable anyway and things rarely fallowed as planned.

Speaking of plans, I wasn't really planning on it but between the comfortable peacefull silence of the compartment, the steady rocking of the train's movement and the fact that Karen woke me up at the crack of dawn again...I let go a slow steady breath and closed my eyes as I leaned agaiinst the window pane. I mus have been more tiered then I had thought, because it felt like as soon as I rested my head against the window pane I let the cooling dark waves of sleep take over.

_I opened my eyes to glaring sunlight and the fact that I felt weightless all of a sudden, as light as a feather floating through the air kind of light. I felt dizzy too and placed my hand on my head before looking around to try and figure things out. I had been through so much in just one day already that I really didn't need anything else to surprise me right then. "What the-?", I started looking around my surroundings with narrowed eyes taking in the scenery around me._

_I wasn't on a train anymore with Plue and Karen...I was standing in the archway opening of what looked like an old ruin of some kind. I never even knew that there were ruins like this so close to the town, we had to be just outside it. The more I looked around the place, the more I came to realize that this place had to be a church before it started to fall apart. Still it wasn't as bad as I expected ruins to be. Aside from the plants that had started to. Liam the stone wreckage and once beautifull shattered stain glass windows, most of the place was still standing. There was a huge hole In the center of the church's roof that extended down on either of the side walls. But what really got my attention was the familier head of spiky orange hair sitting on the steps of a platform with some kind of statue on it and the back of a women with long green hair._

_Loke and Karen. I couldn't hear anything, but from their body language I could tell they were arguing with each other. When Karen aimed a kick at Loke, I started forward to stop the Celestial Wizard but froze when a new figure ran into the ruined church past me in a yellow blur and put themself between Celestial Spirit and Wizard catching the kick herself on her side. I placed a shaking hand on my side when I caught the look of anger on the girl's face as she glared at Karen._

_It was me, even though it was impossible since I was watching the whole thing in front of me a few feet away._

_I watched as the other me argued with Karen, Loke standing up and joining the argument. My eyes widened as I watched myself pull out a golden Zodiac Key and summon Saggitarius, before pointing to Karen saying something. A minute later The Archer pinned Karen to the wall of the church with his arrows, causing her to drop something before I walked over and picked it up off of the ground._

"Lucy! For the love of the stars, get up!", came a familier demanding female voice and a shaking on my shoulder.

My eyes fluttered open and I looked up at Karen staring down at me, "Karen?", I asked as I blinked to readjust my sore brown eyes to the harsh light.

"Look Lucy. I need to know that your head is one hundred percent in this partnership and that you'll give it your all, because if not then we could be facing a brake up that can't be fixed with a simple appology this time. Be friends with Celestial Spirits, I don't care. But during a fight all that matters is that we're in sync and do our job.", came Karen's voice unexpectedly cutting into my thoguhts and causing me to look at the older Celstial Wizard accross the set from me. I must have looked confussed, because she huffed and leaned on her elbow to look out the window like I was a minute ago. "A spirit will always come back from a fight, we don't have that privilege. If we don't use spirits then we don't come back to the guild. Our lives depend each other and our power to call Celestial Spirits. Just remember that and try not to disappear on me like that again."

I nodded having a foreboding feeling about Karen's speech just then but shook it of as my head messing with me again, "Right, but don't you think we should get off the train now? We've kind of just been sitting here for the past five minutes and the train's leaving soon towards Clover Station."

**Sorry it was so short and seemingly a pointless non-action or love interest-orianted, but this chapter did actually have quite a bit of significance. The most obvious is a transition from the last scene to the next, but there are other larger reasons for this chapter as well despite how bland or short it may be. Some of them may not be aparent untill the sequel, but go ahead and have fun trying to find them anyway. I LOVE connecting certain things like this in my fanfictions. It makes things more fun and interesting to me.**


	8. The Low Down

**Next chapter! I hope you all like it and thanks so much for the continued support and reviews! I also changed the mission up a little bit. The next chapter will be a LoLu moment kind of...yes I appologize for the not so many moments just yet, but there will be more towards the end and plenty in the sequel I promise!~**

Oshibana was a small town that really didn't look any different from the last time I was there. The train station Karen and I walked out of still seemed to be the central point of the town, with the other surrounding buildings built in a way that helped mark the station as the center of everything. As we headed through the town, it was a nice change to see that the men in Oshibana didn't fawn over us like they did back at the guild. A sideways glance was about all we were greeted with untill we reached the white based brown roofed residence of the client. I reached up and knocked loudly on the door to the house and stepped back to wait for someone to answer the door and let us in. Though we really didn't have that long to wait before a little girl cracked open the door, with a younger looking boy beside her.

The little girl didn't look much older then maybe ten years old with a pair of large blue eyes staring wide up at me and Karen. From what I could tell she had long dark brown hair with light blond streaks, that lay around her shoulders in soft little curls that made her look sweet and innocent. From what I could tell through the door, the little girl had on a bright yellow summertime dress with little white flowers on it and thin straps over her shoulders.

Beside the little girl I could just bearly make out the outline of who I was sure to be the girl's younger brother. He had the same dark brown curly hair as his sister and looked up at us from behind her with wide brown eyes in fear. He looked around maybe eight years old.

I couldn't help but smile at the girl and my eyes softened at the sight of the pair and smile at them. I bent down to their leval smiling warmly at both of them. I held up a hand in greeting, "Hi there, you don't have to be afraid. My name's Lucy and this is my partner Karen. We're here to help. Are your parents home?", I asked as sweetly as I could manage. Of course that didn't stop both of the kids from looking at Karen and I with nervous looks, untill a man and a women walked up behind them and opened the door more.

The women pulled the boy and girl away from the door and held them close to her side, as the man stood in the doorway blocking the enterence to the house. "I am Samual, the owner of this house. What business do the two of you have with me and my family?", he more demanded then asked.

Karen looked at Samual and pulled back her coat a bit to reveal the Blue Pegasus stamp of her side at the same time I held up mine on the back of my hand, "I'm Karen Lilica and this is my partner Lucy Heartfilia. We're wizards from Blue Pegasus here about your request for escorts to Encra. You did want wizards escorts for your trip right? Mind letting us in and explaining what's been going on?"

The little boy's and girl's eyes widended when the older Celestial Wizard mentioned the two of us being wizards.

Samual eyed our guild stamps before nodding and turning to his wife, "It's allright Marianne I'll handle this." He stepped aside and lead the two of us inside into a living room that could rival even the Recreational Room back at the guild in size and the way it was decorated. We sat down on the couch and listened to Samual as he began to explain the job, "It started about a year and a half or so ago. I had just come here to Fiore from a rather small town in Enca with Marianne, Anna and Vinny to start a new life as a merchant. Times were hard for us then so I joined a merchant guild and made who I thought was a friend there who let me barrow money from him. Long story short..."

"You had no idea that he was working for a Dark Guild and now, when they've come to collect the debt you barrowed from them back then, you can't pay so you're trying to get away by leaving the country. But you're worried for your family's saftey, because the Master of this Dark Guild is likely to send people after you and your family to collect the money that doesn't exsist.", I finished for him with narrowed eyes as realization hit me. So this man was entagled in a mess with a Dark Guild? Talk about Lucy zero, Loke two. The spirit clearly had no intention of making this easy on me, but I wasn't going to back down so easily. I was determined to prove to the lion spirit that he could trust me no matter what it took to do that. But I still had a feeling I wasn't going to like whatever else he had planned for me either.

Samual nodded solemnly, "Yes that's about right. Normally I wouldn't bother getting others involved inaffairs that were of my own creation like this, but with my family involved I'd do anything to ensure their safety. It wasn't right to drag me into this and now they're paying the price for my actions a year ago...having to hide like this." The man sounded discusted with himself as he balled his hands into fists and shook his head, before looking back up at Karen and I. "That's why I need a wizard's help.", he added.

Karen sighed and crossed her arms, "Enca is an island to the south. We have to travel through Fiore and then Sin to get there, that's no easy job request for any wizard. It could take a week or more to get there." She looked at me raising an eyebrow and nodding her head for me to go on.

I nodded and looked back at Samual, "When exactly were you and your family planning on leaving sir.", I asked. I was glad that we were going to be helping out Samual and his family, but something kept bothering me and telling me that this wasn't going to end well. Even so I shook the thoughts from my head. I needed to focus and keep an eye on Karen during this trip, especially now that there was probably going to be a Dark Guild tailing us. I was detremined to prove to Loke that he could trust me and this job was going to have plenty of opportunities to do just that.

**Let the LoLu moments really begin!**


	9. The Calm Before The Storm

**Welcome back you guys to the next chapter of the famfiction! I love the reviews ad thank you so much for your kind words. **

**If you have any suggestions then please feel free to place them in your reviews or PM them to me. (I need ideas to help jump start my thoughts with what to do for two days traveling through Fiore and two days for traveling through Sin.) I can not garuntee that they will be placed into the fanfiction since I have my own plan for where this is going to end up, BUT I will definetly take them all into consideration and MAY use some in the sequel if they don't make it in here but I really like the idea. If I use your idea, then I will dedicate that chapter it is in to you. Sound good? Enjoy all and let the ideas flow in!~**

The day after Karen and I had arrived at Oshibana we set out for Enca with Samual and his family early in the morning. Just like anybody else that traveled in Fiore, we took a wagon we had all helped to pack the day before and my partner and I split ourselves up to cover more ground. Karen was riding up front with Samual as he drove the wagon and I rode inside it with Marianne and the two kids Vinny and Anna. For someone that was entagled in a mess with a Dark Guild, our trip was mostly pretty quiet and calm...not that I was complaining about it or anything. It was a nice change to take a job that was calm like this for once and I smiled as I leaned on my elbow and stared outhte small window of the wagon at the slowly passing green Fiore landscape outside. Every so often I let my eyes look up at the slightly grey clouded sky, but nothing to really worry about with the sun still out and a gentle breeze. I could here Samual and Karen laughing up front as their laughing voices drifted into the compartment, causing my mind to subconciously drift to thoughts of Loke. I had never thought about it untill then, but I never did find out how he...or Aries for that matter...came to meet Karen and make contracts with her and I found myself wondering about it:

I made contracts with Cancer and Aquarius when their keys were given to me after my mom's death. She had trusted their keys to two other wizards untill I was ready to become a wizard and practice magic like her.

I met Taurus on my own and made a contract with him.

Saggittarius's key and Virgo's key were the results of jobs.

Capricorn's key belonged to my mom too, but he ended up giving me his key himself like Loke had.

"So, if you're really a wizard, then what kind of magic do you use? You don't look like a wizard to me and neither does that other lady sitting up front with dad.", the young boy, Vinny, eyed me up and said with a bit of a stubborn atitude, "I'm going to be a wizard and join a powerfull guild when I'm old enough! I just need to learn magic!"

"Vinny! It's not polite to bump yourself into other people's lives like that and that was very rude! Lucy and Karen are here to protect us! The very least you can do young man is show them a bit of respect like your father and I tought you!", his mother snapped at him giving her son a disapproving look.

I shook my head and looked at the older women, "Don't worry about it, it's okay. I don't mind the questions and I'm used to atitudes so that's not a big deal either. He's curious and that's a good thing right?", I assured her. Then I raised an eyebrow shaking my head and looked at Vinny when he mentioned he wanted to be a wizard, "Well you know being a wizard is harder then it sounds and there are certain rules and bounderies that you hve to fallow too. But Karen and I both practice Celestial Magic." I bent over and unhooked the leather key pouch from my side, before pulling out the ring of gold and sivler keys to show Vinny and his older sister. "These are called Gate Keys.", I started to explain, "A Celestial Wizard uses them to summon beings from another world called Celestial Spirits to help us in a fight." Vinny took one look eying the gently clinking keys with wide excited eyes before yelling about how he wanted to be a Celestial Wizard too when he joined a guild. I laughed at the boy's cheering untill I noticed that, unlike her brother, Anna looked at the dangling gold and silve keys with a bit of what I reconized as fear. "Something wrong Anna?", I asked her giving her my full attention now.

The young brown haired girl bit her lower lip and looked up from the gate keys to meet my eyes nervously, "I-it's just that I like the idea of being a wizard too but...but I know I'd be horrible against another wizard and summoning a Celestial Spirit sounds kind of scary. Like they're ghosts or big monsters or something.", she conffesed warily.

"Oh come on Anna what's there to be afraid of? Being a Celestial Wizard sounds so cool! I want to be able to summon spirits and fight other wizards!", Vinny nudged his older sister in the ribs with his elbow grinning mockingly, "You're always calling me a scardy cat and boasting about how you're the older one, but you're afraid of a spirit!", he laughed.

Anna blushed a furious red before sticking her tounge out at her younger bother and glaring at him.

So anna was afraid of Celestial Spirits. Having an idea I looked at the brown haired girl calmly before, "You know Celestial Spirits aren't as scary as you think. I mean, yeah a few of them are a bit intimidating, but their not evil or dangerous. My mom was a Celestial Wizard too, so I grew up learning about spirits but it's easy to understand why you'd be afraid of them. You can still be a Celestial Wizard and join a guild but not take jobs if you wanted." I pulled out Lyra's and Plue's silver gate keys before holding them up clearly for Anna to see as she stared at me wide eyed and pressed herself back into her seat a bit not sure what I would do. "There are two kinds of spirits: Combat Specialized spirits and Perfomance spirits that aren't really fit for a fight but make great friends and companions anyway. Here I'll show you." First up I held up Plue's key aware of Vinny and Marianne watching me too, "Open. Gate of Canis Minor. Come Nikora." My magic circle appeared in front of me and Plue appeared shaking on my lap holding up a paw and smiling at me in greeting.

"Oh my. He's adorable isn't he?", asked the kid's mother smiling before looking at the little girl next to her who had curled up against her side when I summoned Plue, "See Anna dear, does he look scary to you?"

Anna lowered her hands from her face and blinked at Plue before shaking her head no carefully, "N-no. H-he's kind of cute. Is he really a Celestial Spirit?"

I nodded glad that Anna felt confortable around the little shaking spirit on my lap, "Yeah. His name is Plue, he's a Nikora which is actually a really common kind of spirit and Celestial Wizards useually keep them as constant companions because it doesn't take a lot of magic to summon them." I held up Lyra's key, "There's someone else I want you to meet Anna, her name is Lyra the Lyre and she's a little different from Plue. Is it okay if I summon her?", I asked. I know there was really no reason to ask if it was okay to summon Lyra, but I wanted to be gentle and easy with the girl since she was so afraid of Celestial Spirits. I had thought about summoning Virgo but then realized it might be a little early for me to summon The Maiden and introduce Anna to her. When Anna nodded keeping her eyes on Plue I held up Lyra's key and summoned her.

The strawberry blond spirit giggled and imdietly turned her attention to me, "Oh Lucy it's so good to see you! I was wondering when you were going to summon me again, it feels like you nevr do anymore and I was starting to get worried. But it looks like I didn't have to! Now what can I play for you today? Any special requests or do you want it to be a surprise?", the giggling spirit asked resting her harp on her lap.

I gave the spirit a look, "You're the one that said you were only avaliable three days a month Lyra, I'm just trying to keep to the contract.", I pointed out. Then I pointed at Anna who was staring surprised at the spirit, "And you don't have to play this time Lyra, I just wanted someone to meet you. Lyra meet Anna, Anna meet Lyra the Lyre. Lyra has the most beautifull singing voice and she's wonderfull with a harp. She's a Preformance Spirit like I mentioned earlier." I sat back and watched as spirit and little girl started to talk to each other, Anna was quiet at first but it didn't take long for the Lyre's bubbly, happy personality to rub off on Anna and the brown haired little girl started laughing and nodding listening closely to every word Lyra said before changing the subject to something new. It made me happy to see how well they were getting along with each other and I was glad that my idea ended up working after all.

**Claire-Starsword~Thanks so much, and yeah I know her partnership with Lucy is contrasting. But I mean she has to have some other emotion to her right? Plus it's all to make the last scene all the better. *sigh* Creating a personality half from scratch isn't easy but it'll be worth it if the last scene comes out the way I am hoping it will. This is the last real calm chapter before things get a little tight (hense the name).**


	10. The Storm Brakes

**And now I think It's time we all had a little bit of fun...don't you guys? Yes. I think we did. Let the fun begin! Enjoy!~**

**LONG CHAPTER AHEAD!**

Thinking that we could reach Enca without any problems turned out to be wishfull thinking when the wagon came to a sudden stop. I sat up right knowing there was no real reason for us to be stopping unless something happened. Having a bad feeling I looked down at Plue and then looked over at Lyra with narrowed eyes, "Guys..", I said not having to go much further then that for an explination. Once Plue and Lyra had disappeared, I looked at Samual's family as unhooked my whip from my belt and headed for the wagon door. I felt a tug on my shirt and turned around to look at two kids with worried looks on their faces. I smiled, "I'm sure it's nothign to worry about. You just let my partner and me do our job and don't leave unless you have to okay?", I pushed open the door and stepped out of the wagon to see what had caused us to suddenly stop in the middle of the road like that.

I crossed in front of the wagon seeing both Samual and my partner had climbed down out of the driver's seat. I walked up standing next to the green haired older Celestial Wizard and looked at her, "Hey what's going on you guys? Why did we stop all of a sudden?", I asked before my question answered for itself. I heard footsteps and looked away from Karen in the direction they were coming from in time to see a hooded figure walk out of the few trees around us and join another hooded figure blocking the road way. I could tell by the one figure's long dark brown hair that one was a women and the other was a man by the looks of his height and body shape.

Karen narrowed her eyes at the two new arrivals before demanding, "Who are you two and what do you want?!"

I noticed the long haired figure smirk under her hood and watched her eyes drift to the Blue Pegasus mark on my hand and the same one on my partner's side. "We figured they would hire wizard escorts for protection, but we never thought that those wizards would be the Steller Sisters of Blue Pegasus. Karen Lilica. Lucy Heartfilia. This is a surprise, but it wouldn't be any fun without even such a small obstical in the way.", she grinned and pulled something out of her pocket throwing them past the three of us under the wagon where Samual's family was.

They were seeds! This women used Plant Magic!

A magic circle appeared under the wagon and vines shot up and around the vehicle from the seeds restraining it, causing worried yells from the two kids and women inside. "I am Helena, the Plant Wizard of the Shadow Vipers Dark Wizarding Guild. My partner is our guild's Angel Magic Wizard Terrance.", the female wizard pulled off her cloak and tossed it to the side of the road running a hand through her long dark brown hair. Her companion, Terrance, was a black haired well muscled guy. "Now then.", grinned Helena looking at Samual, "We've come to collect the money you owe our guild and you have two choices: we can either leave with the money or we can leave with your family. You're choice."

"Well we'll see about that. You're a fool if you think you're getting past us after you know who we are. Lucy.", Karen grinned and I cought a glint of polished gold and the familiar detailed lion's head surrounding the red symbol at the top of the key slip into my partner's hand. At the same time like some kind of reflex I reached into my leather key holder and removed the key with the crab at the end of it.

"Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

"Open! Gate of the Giant Crab! Cancer!"

Out of the corner of my eye I watched as the guy, Terrance, smirked and tossed up what looked a lot like four small coins. I held up my arm to sheild my eyes from the bright light that lit up the area gritting my teeth, before gradually lowering my arm as the light fadded. I stared up at what looked like some oversized stone baby with a hair style similar to Wakaba's and wings looking down at us now standing behind the two dark wizards. "What the heck is that thing!? It's huge!", I shrieked taking in the things shear size before becoming aware of two people standing on either side of me: on one side was Cancer holding a pair of scissors in each hand and on my other side was Loke dressed in his typical suit.

Cancer looked up at the stone being, "That's one big baby, baby. Looks like it could use a hair cut."

"It's Angel Magic.", corrected Loke narrowing his eyes and giving me a quick side ways glance.

I narrowed my eyes and met the orange haired spirit's hazel eyes with my own brown eyes. It was silent but the message of 'You knew this would happen!?' came across loud and clear. I knew it was no use arguing with the lion about the job request he left on the table in my apartment now. '_Forget about it Lucy and get you're head where it belongs...in the fight!', _I mentally yelled at myself."Angel Magic? So that thing is supposed to be some kind of angel?", I asked looking from the spirit to the angel as it took a step towards us shaking the ground under our feet with each step it took like a mini earthquake. I found myself looking around for any signs of a landslide though that wasn't going to happen.

Loke closed his eyes and looked away, "It's not that far off from Celestial Magic really. By using magic coins a person can summon different kinds of angels. Unlike us spirits, the angels can't think for themselves, but that only makes them more of a challenge though the wizard themself is useually weak. Still that's only part of the problem. We can't forget about the plant wizard either. ", he explained before looking back at the summoned winged angel.

Terrance laughed, "That orange haired spirit has it right girl, but he didn't mention that my angels are stronger then your spirits. They have more then just shear size and strength on their side! Now let's see how well these Pegasi and their spirits can last...Shamsiel!" On command the angel reached down towards us and reached out to grab us with it's huge hands forcing us to jump back out of the way as the hand slammed down creating a cloud of rock and dust.

"Lucy! I'll try and create and opening, but when you can go after the wizard and take him out! It'll stop the angel he summoned and send it away!", Loke yelled over in my directon.

"Okay!", I called back nodding. My grip tightened on my whip as I alternated avoiding the large stone figure and the vines trying to trap me trying to get too the wizard. It sounded like a good plan but that still left one wizard that could take either me ot the spirit by surprise...luckily there was anouther Celestial Spirit and wizard besides just me and the lion. I made my way over to Karen and ended up back-to-back with her before I turned my head around to look at the green haired Celestial Wizard. "Karen. Leo and I can handle the guy and his freaky statue, can you and Cancer handle the plant wizard?", I asked hoping she'd be willing to cooperate easily with me knowing how difficult she could be.

My partner glanced back at me with cool narrowed eyes for a moment before looking away, "Allright. I suppose braking these two up would be the easiest thing to do. Just be carefull not to make a fool of yourself and mess up.", she grinned back at me for a minute before I felt the pressure of her back against mine disappear.

I watched Karen leave for a minute before being joined with Cancer and then took a breath taking off on my own for the angel magic user. The sounds of crumbling rock and collisions filled my ears and dust got into my lungs. The stone being swung out at me with an arm, only to have it shatter making me drop to the ground and cover my head when Loke hit it's arm with a blast of light. Not bothering to waste anymore time and wait for another attack, I pushed myself to my feet and twirled my leather whip around my head before lashing it out at the guy splitting a chunk of rock that had fallen instead of hitting my target. Biting my lower lip in frustration, I yanked my whip back towards me and then lashed it out at the wizard again this time managing to wrap the long leather weapon around the guy and bind his arms to his sides. "Ha! Whose an easy obstical now?!", I grinned lifting the guy into the air and slamming him to the ground on the other side of me. I cleaned my forehead and looked around watching Loke crumble most of the stone angel the guy had summoned and Karen and Cancer knock down the plant wizard.

I was so cought up in the fact that it looked like we had won, that I didn't notice the beam of light from the pigs on the angel headed for Samual and his family untill it was too late or Karen holding up both Loke's and Aries's key untill I heard "Close! Gate of the Lion!" which seemed like it cought the spirit off his gaurd just as much as it had me. My eyes widened and I looked at the older wizard droping the end of the whip, "Karen!"

"Open! Gate of the Golden Ram! Aries!"

The pink haired female ram spirit appeared in front of Samual and his family seperating them and the oncoming blast of light, bracing herself with her eyes shut.

Acting fast I pulled the right key out from my leather pouch and held it up, "Open! Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!", I yelled summoning the other female pink haired spirit as fast as I could and hoping I made it in time.

The sound of something tearing through the rock underground.

Yells.

Something grabing me and the feeling of moving while floating in the air all of a sudden.

A crash.

A blast of light and burst of wind as the light blast connected.

I stared at the ground stunned for a minute and confussed about what was going on with me one minute having summoned Virgo and the next being swept, literally ,off my feet and carried out of nowhere. At first I had thought that it was Cancer that had picked me up all of a sudden, but I looked up noticing the crab spirit standing a foot away with shrivled large vines cut in half laying around the path. I thought about Virgo but my stomach twisted into a knot when I looked past the spirit with the scissors towards Virgo standing by a large hole in the ground with Samual, his family and Aries. With them stood a shocked Karen with a look on her face that made me pale and chills cover my spine and arms. Hoping I was wrong but knowing there I was right, I looked up at the spirit as he eased my feet back onto the ground.

"Sorry Lucy but you're not getting out of our contract that easily.", Loke droped his voice keeping it's serious tone that I had come to expect by now instead of his...what I thought of as normal...playfull care-free tone. Then his tone rose to become normal pitch again as he let go of me fixing the jacket of his suit, "Looks like we were both just in time. You're losing your edge Karen, you didn't restrain your opponant after the battle so she couldn't act while you weren't looking and because of it your so-called partner almost paied the price. You shouldn't be so careless.", he scolded the green haired older wizard like she was some little kid.

Karen's whole body was visiably shaking with anger as she directed her glare at Loke, who only held her furious unerved glare with a steady calm serious one of his own. "Damn it Leo! How did you open you're own gate!?", she demanded balling her hands into fists so tight that her knuckles started to turn white before she released her fists.

The realization of what had happened dawned on me then and it replied in front of me in slow motion this time. Karen had summoned Aries to act as a sheild from the stone angel's light blast to gaurd Samual and his family before I summoned Virgo. thanks to the The Maiden and her digging a large hole under the ram spirit, Samual and his family, all five of them were able to escape the light blast safely through the hole and come through the tunnel to the other side without taking any lind of damage. But in the chaos I didn't notice that the plant wizard had sent her vines after me behind my back, so Loke opened his own gate and got me out of the path of the plants while Cancer cut them with his scissors using his speed. I blinked and loked at Loke who just ignored Karen like he hadn't heard her. By trhe looks of it my fellow Blue Pegasus member wasn't as used to spirits opening their own gates and showing up out of nowhere unexpected as I was.

**Sorry it took so long to get this one out there you guys, but I have recently been hit hard with papers and such. But I managed to get this out to you anyway so yeah! I'm sorry if the fight scene wasn't that great or long enough for all of you, I had a lot of information that I wanted to put into this chapter and it was getting seriously late where I am at so I cut it as short as I could without ruining anything or cutting out any information that I had wanted to put in here. :) Unfortunetly this did not work as well as I had hoped due to my laziness atthe end and I cut the very last bit to use as the first part of the next chapter. :(**


	11. Kindling For The Flames

**LoLu is here! Nothing OMG major, just a fuzzy warm little bonding moment is all. **

**So I have had PMs from people coming up with the idea that seeing Lucy and the spirits and how they act in regards to each other as possibly changing Karen's actions towards them. That's actually not a bad idea, unfortunetly that's not exactly what I was planning. It would defeat the whole plot of the sequel and the ending to this fiction. Aside from the fact that I can't see Karen changing her thoughts about spirits like that any time soon...there is a method to my madness so Karen Lilica will not be surviving this fan fiction into the sequel I am sorry to report. Hope that doesn't chase any of you away though. Enjoy!~ -**

Why was it that every time Loke was around I always managed to get into trouble with another women in some way?

It never failed.

After Loke and Cancer saved me from the plant wizard's attack, both dark wizards took off. We had tried to fallow them but we eventually gave up and decided to set up a camp to rest for the night and regain our strength. But just because our fight with the dark wizards ended, didn't mean that it was going to be a calm night...not when Karen pulled me aside anyway. "Lucy! Mind telling me what that was all about?!", Karen demanded giving me a suspicious look with narrowed eyes and her arms crossed across her chest. There was no doubt that the older Celestial Wizard was refering to Loke pulling me out of the way of that last spell from the plant wizard. "How and why would a spirit summon themselves to save you?! And why did you have Virgo dig a hole under Aries and the client and his family?! I thought I took care of it!", she snapped frustrated at me.

Was Karen Lilica really jelous of me after all? I shook my head clearing the crazy thoughts from mind before facing my partner. I just glared right back at the green haired wizard and snapped back at her with, what I hoped, would explain the answers to her questions without bringing more questions. "I don't know why Leo saved me, but then again Celestial Spirits are beings with their own magic and thoughts. But why does it bother you so much Karen, when all that really matters is that we did our job? We were hired to protect Samual and his family right?", I shot back at the older Celestial Wizard who ended up just blinking at me.

Getting the feeling that my partner was about to ask another question, I quickly excused myself by turning around and heading into the trees waving behind me. "We're going to need wood for the fire soon and I don't mind getting it. Later!", I called taking off at a medium jogging pace. I didn't exactly feel like playing twenty questions with my guild mate so I kept jogging through the woods until I was sure that Karen didn't come running after me demanding more of an explanation. Taking in deep breaths to calm my heart rate I looked around the area where I had stopped.

The place I had stopped looked like a medium sized clearing of some kind, dotted with large rocks and bushes. It might not have been a great place to set up a camp and rest for the night, but the surrounding trees made it a great place for finding firewood at least. The sky had just started to become streaked with the pinks and yellows as the sun started to set, when I froze and tightened my grip on he small pile of sticks in my arms.

I had heard what sounded like something or someone walking around the trees behind me. I moved slowly as I placed the small pile of sticks in my arms at my feet and reached for the Fleuve d'étoiles without looking away from the bushes behind me. Maybe I should have seen this coming, but I didn't.

After un snapping the whip from my belt, I spun on my heel and lashed the River of Stars at the bushes only to have whoever or whatever was hiding behind the greenery jump to the side making my attack miss them. I yanked back on the whip to try and hit them again, when the weapon wouldn't snap back. I tugged on it harder only to have it be yank just as hard in the opposite direction like whoever had fallowed me had grabed it and refused to let go...instead the weapon was pulled from my grip completely in a single rough tug. My hand flew to the leather pouch and just grabbed a hold of Taurus's key, when I released the key as the person that took my whip stepped out of the bushes holding the now rolled up weapon in front of him with a slight grin on his face.

Loke again.

He held up the whip and looked pointedly at me,"You know you should find some time to practice your aim a little bit Lucy. This was almost too easy to move out of the way even from behind a bush. Your aim was better against that Angel Magic Wizard earlier and you shouldn't be in the woods alone when the sun is starting to set." I had no idea right then, but I'd find out later on that this was Loke's attempt at starting to try and trust me again. It would still take two weeks of fights with enemy wizards, butting heads with Karen and sudden unofficial dates before I could put two and two together though.

I looked at the spirit raising an eyebrow at him as he walked towards me carrying my whip rolled up. Probably out of habit but I started going off on the lion spirit. "I thought you left with Virgo and Aries awhile ago and why is it that I always get in trouble with some girl when you're around? First your fanclub and then Karen goes off on me.", I asked forgetting that he wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about.

Loke leaned back against a tree trunk after I took the Fleuve d'étoiles and secured it to my belt again. "You learn to ignore Karen after awhile, if one of her spirits learned how then it shouldn't be to hard for her partner right?", he asked before,"And I did leave, but I decided to come back after you left Karen. From what you've said in the past it sounds like we have a history together and I was curious about it and I can tell you have some questions for me too."

I nodded not expecting to have been able to hide anything like that from the orange haired spirit. I really wasn't sure how he would react when I told him we were actually dating, but Loke being himself it was bound to come out sooner or later. I noticed something as the spirit spoke too, away from his wizard with just us like this I noticed how Loke's tone seemed softer and less...irritated almost...then before when he was scolding my partner for dropping her guard with the plant wizard. I felt my stomach squirm but made it stop right away. Now wasn't the time for those feelings to surface. I was just starting to make some progress it felt like.

"So Lucy, what do you want to know?", he asked looking over towards me.

"How did you and Aries make contracts with Karen exactly?", I asked the one question that had been secretly getting to me since all this happened.

The lion spirit was silent for a moment as my question felt like it was hanging in the air and I started to worry that he wouldn't answer it. But, "So thats whats been bothering you? How we became contracted to Karen? If you really want to know then I'll tell you, but then you've got to answer a question for me. If you're really different then Karen and think of Celestial Spirits as your friends, you'll answer a question a friend asks you. Right Lucy?"

Make that: Lucy 1 and Loke 2.

I blinked stiffening slightly and locking eyes with Loke. It made too much sense for me to argue with, though I was still trying to think of a way to back out. Yeah I would answer a question a friend asked, especially if I had asked them one before. It was a fair trade...an answer for an answer. There was no way saying no would help me get the spirit's trust again and I wasn't about to just lie anyway. Giving in I nodded and sat on one of the large rocks holding Loke's challenging look. "You're right I would answer a friend's question.", I said nodding my head in agreement to his terms.

Loke looked away and stared at the color streaked sky as he started explaining his and Aries history with Karen. "You don't always think before acting do you? Because honestly its not as complicated as you think. Me and Aries made our contracts at the same time with Karen a few years before you joined the guild. Of course we had no idea what we were getting into, but even if we did there wasn't really anything we could do about it. Karen was on a job in a city a ways north of the guild tracking down a pair of thieves that had been giving that particular town some trouble recently, when she fallowed them to a black market for magical items. She ended up apparently buying both our keys for a hefty price there and let's just say that was the end of another dark guild and the black market trade in that town with that purchase." He looked at me with a slightly amused grin, telling me that he could tell by my face that the explanation wasn't really what I was expecting.

"LEO!", I yelled balling my hands into fists in my sudden outburst of frustration, only earning a wider grin from the completely un-phased spirit. In fact I was pretty sure he found my reaction funny. The Celestial Spirit wasn't letting up on me for a second.

"So Lucy.", I snapped out of it when Loke started talking again, "Why do you care so much about me and Aries again?'

**How'd you all like that one?**

** I was a short explanation, but I had writers block and I need to be up seriously early tomorrow so that we can travel out of stare on holiday. I just wanted to give you guys a little something, even if it wasn't very much you know. ****The first part I had to remove from the end of the previous chapter because...yes I am admitting it...I got a little lazy after that whole fighting scene and I was already well over 1,000 words so I thought it was enough. **

**Hope you are liking the fanfiction so far! Much more planned heading your way all! **

**This will be continued in the next chapter "Just One Spark" with Lucy answering Loke's questions and the truth will come out! How will Loke take it? Will he believe Lucy? How will this effect their relationship that I am trying to patch up? **

**Heck I don't even know yet! LOL.**


	12. Just One Spark

**Sorry that this chapter took so dang long to type up, but I can honestly say that I had a hard time with this one more so then the others. I mean with what Lucy ends up telling Loke and what his reaction would be and everything. I'm still not feeling so great about this chapter even though I just posted it anyway. Please give me your ideas on it guys. Enjoy as best you can *sighs*!~**

It had only been a little while since Phantom Lord attacked the guild but it looked like things were already starting to get back to normal. There were new plans to rebuild the hall , but while construction was under way temporary fixes had been set up beside the construction site. Requests still covered the request board...a Fairy Tail Gift Shop that Max ran had been set up with everything from shirts to member figurines...it was a relief to see the guild getting back on its feet. I sat at the temporary bar having dressed in a navy blue shirt and pink shorts having a friendly conversation with Mira working behind the counter. As I glanced over at the people reading the different job on the request board though, my thoughts drifted to Loke.

I hadn't seen the orange haired wizard since the Phantom attack. Thinking about Loke and the attack brought up a memory I wasn't sure if I was just seeing things or if it really happened. The memory was of the ring wizard fighting the Iron Dragon Slayer Gajeel after the Phantom Dragon Slayer dropped me onto the safe house roof. There was no way it was Loke. The guy always freaked out every time I was around and took off running, while the memory made it look like he was trying to save me from Gajeel. Part of me made me ask myself how many orange haired guys did Fairy Tail have other then him, but then again the black haired dark wizard had done a number on me just before too. Plus I couldn't let myself forget that, while Gray returned my gate keys to me, according to him it was Loke that had found them for me. The guy was starting to get to me for some reason...

"Hey Mira. Have you seen Loke around lately?", I asked the white haired wizard suddenly without really thinking.

Mirajane gave me a teasing grin winking at me a little,"Ah well what do you know. Have you finally decided to go on a date with him?", she places her hands on her hips nodding.

My face turned bright pink as soon as the take over wizard asked and a nervous giggle escaped me. "What? Me go on a date with Loke? Like that's ever going to happen.", I pulled the pouch I had started keeping my gate keys in from my hip and held it up to show Mirajane,"No it's nothing like that, Gray told me he found my keys and I wanted to thank him. The only problem is I haven't seen him since Phantom Lord showed up. I wonder where he ran off to?"

Mirajane sighed waving my comment off not believing me but dropping the subject. She pulled out a flyer handing it to me,"Well I might not know where Loke is, but I do have something for you Lucy. It's a job request I think is perfect for you. It'll help you with your rent and if Natsu, Erza and Gray go a little overboard destroying things then it won't be a big deal."

I took the flyer and read the request brightening instantly,"A group of bandits!? This is perfect! Thanks so much Mira!", I yelled jumping out of my seat and taking off to go find Natsu and the others. This job was exactly what I needed at the moment to help me get enough money to pay the month's rent I was going to otherwise be behind on and take my mind off it's sudden curiosity with the missing orange haired ring wizard. I was already thinking about which spirit I should summon for help.

The bandits hide out was west of town in an old stone fort apparently called Fort Term from what Mirajane had explained to us before we left Magnolia Town. If they could even be called bandits. It wasn't much of a surprise that we were able to take them out pretty easily with: me, Taurus, Natsu and Gray handling the guys on the first level and Erza whipping out the guys upstairs. Taurus and I knocked a guy to the ground before I jumped up and high fived the spirit, "You're awesome! Look at you go!"

"You've got some mooves of your own!", said Taurus grinning at me.

"Man these guys don't put up much of a fight do they?", the pink haired Dragon Slayer sighed eyeing the guy he had just pinned.

Meanwhile Gray was busy having trapped someone else against the cobbled floor of the hide out under his foot, "So who do you loosers steal from? Old ladies and little kids?"

"You'll be sorry.", one of the guys grunted,"Lord Detwin is going to make you pay."

"We took care of him a long time ago.", corrected Happy.

Erza appeared at the top of the staircase releasing the collar of somebody she had knocked out,"I'm all done upstairs." One of the bandits tried to crawl away from the scarlet haired wizard, but only ended up being kicked back to the ground making me wince at the sound of the impact. "Clearly you still have to be punished."

"Sweet! Nice going Erza!"

Taurus looked at the Requip wizard with hearts in his eyes all of a sudden and his face lit up,"Not so fast! Please teach me a lesson too Mistress Erza!"

I sighed and used the Gate of the Golden Bull key to forcibly close Taurus's gate, sending him back to the spirit world. "And away you go! Bye!", I grinned. That was the second spirit of mine to fall for my teamate with the first one being Cancer awhile back. We headed outside the fort and looked back at it as a small stack of black smoke rose from it from our fight with the bandits.

Erza looked away from the building sighing,"Well that was a waste, I was hoping they'd be more of a challenge."

"I want to fight some more!", complained Natsu.

Gray glanced back at the pink haired wizard,"I know how you feel but save it for the next job."

"Hey Lucy look at this gem I got! Pretty cool hunh!?", Happy caught my attention by holding up a small diamond-like gem that he must have taken at some point while we were busy with the bandits.

I blinked,"Stealing from thieves is still stealing!", I snapped at the blue male cat.

But the blue male cat ignored me and turned his head away,"Hey. Isn't that Loke over there?", he asked.

The moment Happy said something my eyes snapped from the talking cat towards where Natsu and Gray were now talking with the same wizard I had asked Mira about earlier. So did this mean Loke had been out on a job too? It made sense that he wasn't at the guild if that was the case. Thinking that now was the perfect chance to thank the orange haired wizard for finding my gate keys I walked over smiling,"Hey am I glad to see you. Thanks so much for..."

Loke took one look at me and jumped back,"Sorry but I better hit the road. So long!", and the ring wizard took off running leaving me with a stunned expression on my face.

I grit my teeth in frustration as I watched him disappear down the road,"What is that guy's problem!?"

The black haired ice wizard gave me a look raising his eyebrow,"I don't know what you did, but you really freak him out."

Natsu eyed me suspiciously too,"Yeah he avoids you like the plague."

I felt a vain pop in my forehead,"It's not my fault he's crazy!", I snapped at the pair of them. I turned and looked at fort with its small pillar of black smoke rising from it. "Hey. Since we finished early for once why don't we hit a spa and take it easy?", I suggested remembering a well known spa town called Hosenka Village being around here some where.

"Lucy that sounds like a fine idea.", nodded Erza to mine and the guy's relief.

As soon as we arrived in Hosenka, Erza and I hit the spa waters. I soaked myself in up to my neck in the steamy spa water allowing it to soak into my skin and warm me from the inside out. My muscles were completely relaxed from the not-to-harsh heat and every sore part of my body started to feel better not long after getting into the spring. I leaned up against the rocks lining the spring rubbing my shoulder and, again, found myself thinking about Loke again only this time I couldn't get him out of my head. He was always running away from me like earlier every time he saw me,"I don't get it. Why is Loke so afraid of me?", I said under my breath until I heard someone standing up in the spring and tuned around.

"The moons out, it's a nice night tonight. The bath water here is nice too."

It was Erza having been soaking in the warm spa waters with her clothes and armor on. I blinked cocking my head at the scarlet haired wizard,"Um...you're bathing in your armor?", I asked her raising an eyebrow at my guildmate.

"I'm more relaxed with it on."

"Really? Doesn't it feel kind of weird?"

"Now that you mention it..it does. Perhaps I should reconsider my definition of relaxation."

"Yeah I don't think relaxing is your strong point. Wow! You look just as amazing without your armor!", I told Erza when, in a yellow light, she changed from her armor and clothing.

The Requip Fairy Tail wizard grinned and turned away so her back was to me,"Really? Then perhaps I should walk around the guild like this?" Silence before,"That was a joke."

I gave a nervous laugh, "Of course it was..."

Later on I walked along a stone path rubbing my head and glad I was able to slip away from my four out of control friends for a little while. I glanced down at Plue walking with me rubbing my head a bit from where a trio of pillows had nailed me in the head. I was wearing a blue bath robe tied tightly around me at my waist as I walked with my arms dangling loose at my sides. I swore that my friends didn't even act human at times and the pillow fight that Natsu had started was the perfect example. "Jeez sometimes I think those guys aren't even human.", I sighed talking to Plue though I knew I wasn't really going to get a response,"But I guess Happy doesn't really count since he's a cat and you're a dog hunh Plue?", I looked down at the little Canis Minor spirit beside me stoping for a minute.

"Actually I'm a human just like you."

"Yeah?", I laughed. After realizing what was going on though I let to a shriek and jumped back away from the Celestial Spirit with wide eyes,"Human!? I didn't even know you could talk!"

"Aye!"

My body relaxed again,"Aye?", there was only one person I knew that said aye. Mentally yelling at myself for falling for such a stupid trick, I put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at a bush a little ways ahead of me,"Very funny. Now get your blue butt over here Happy!", I snapped realizing that the blue flying cat was the one messing with me. I raised an eyebrow at the male cat as he peeked out from behind the bush when I caught him.

"Darn. I was hoping I could keep it up for at least a week or two...you know since your so dumb and all. What are you doing out here anyway Lucy?", Happy said looking genuinely disappointed I had figured out his trick with Plue.

Another vain popped in my forehead and I resisted the urge to leap at the talking cat,"Gee glad you think so highly of me. I'm not doing much, just taking a little walk while waiting for the pillow fight apacolpse to be over.", I said referring to Erza's, Natsu's and Gray's fight back at our rooms. When I heard footsteps behind me I turned around expecting to find Gray or Natsu trying to ambush me with a pillow but instead came face to face with a pair of guys I had never met before.

One of the guys head was shaking back and forth. He wore a light blue shirt and dark pants,"Those clothes look great on you. Are you a tourist?", the wobble headed guy asked me with a grin making me instinctively back up a step or so.

The other guy with a black shirt and some kind of amulet-looking necklace around his neck took a step towards me. "We're here on vacation from Oshibana yo. Let's have a funky good time yo.", he grinned making me feel uncomfortable as I started to think of a way out of the situation.

"Sorry but I'm with my friends tonight.", I tried pointing to Happy and Plue behind me getting more nervous now. Every time I took a step back the two guys took the same step towards me, making me wish I had my keys on me or at least my whip. These guys were really starting to creep me out to the point where I didn't realize something was different about them until they took my wrists and one of them placed a hand on my shoulder. Once they touched me and I found myself unable to move a single muscle in my body I knew these weren't just any thugs...these thugs happened to be wizards. My heartbeat became faster pounding against my chest as I became panicked at the realization.

Natsu and the others had no idea where I was.

Happy was useless and Plue wasn't exactly Taurus or Virgo either.

I didn't have my keys or my whip...like I could get to them with my body frozen like this even if I had them on me anyway.

My head was still racing as I tried to come up with some way out of this, when something streaked past me and knocked the wobble head guy to the ground completely out of it. I looked up and I stared stunned as a certain wizard turned around and knocked the last guy away from me with a well aimed round house kick sending both guys to he ground unconscious. I blinked as the memory of Loke and the black haired Phantom Dragon Slayer named Gajeel fighting on the roof of the safe house and earlier that day when he ran from me started to merge together. "Loke?"

Loke turned grinning at me, "You're not hurt are you?", he asked before catching me off guard by disappearing and reappearing peeking out from behind a tree a foot away. "I'm really sorry.", he apologized for no reason.

"What are you sorry for!?", I yelled. Was he seriously apologizing for saving me from these creeps just now? I should have known that it wasn't just the other members of Team Natsu that acted out of the ordinary, but still. Why was he apologizing for something like that?

The male Fairy Tail wizard walked over and looked down at the two knocked out men, "These two were renegade wizards that prey on tourists. I was actually after their bounty so you ended up helping me out. Anyway I better bring these two in before they decide to wake up.", he rubbed the back of his head before reaching down and grabbing the collars of both men.

"Oh well thanks for saving me from those guys and finding my keys for me.", I thanked him glad that I finally had the opportunity to. I mentally noticed how he didn't seem as jumpy or eager to get away from like he normally was around me. Maybe it really was Loke that I saw fighting that Gajeel guy before after all. He did just save me from two creeps worth of wizard thugs after all, and for as near each other as we were he seemed just fine as we stood talking to each other. I felt something start to bubble up in the pit of my stomach when I decided that the question was innocent enough to ask.

Loke grinned and looked away, "No problem. It was nothing really."

"Hey. How about you and I go out together?", I asked out of nowhere smiling at the orange haired wizard holding up a hand.

**Sorry it was so long and if it was slightly confusing. I wasn't sure how else to do it, so I decided to combine a couple of episodes in a way that still made sense and flowed well, and then use this chapter as Lucy explaining things to Loke. Things will be better described in the next chapter and I am proud to say that I have this all planned out so that it reaches to 24 or 25 chapters total. :) I hope that doing things this way made it a little more interesting then just copying the episodes exactly and explaining all the way from episode one onwards. **

**See you next chapter: "From One Women To The Next": my lovelies!**


	13. From One Women To The Next

**And say hello to the next chapter everybody! I hope that all of your enjoy it! Also if you are confused about anything then please feel free to PM me and and I will explain things to hopefully clear any questions you may have guys.~**

"Ms. Lucy is something wrong?"

I blinked at the sound of the little girl's voice and turned to look at Anne giving me a look of concern. The truth was that things were a mess. It was the morning after the battle with the wizards from the Dark Guild and my little argument with Karen last night had carried over into a tension-filled morning as we packed everything back up and headed out again for Enca. My partner and I didn't even glance at each other let alone say something to the other. Then on top of the mess with Karen my little night explaining things to Loke didn't end up with the best results either. "What? Yeah I'm fine Anne don't worry about it. I guess I'm just tiered from the fight yesterday and staying up late walking around the woods getting firewood. It's not like using magic doesn't cost anything. That and me and my friends are just having a little argument.", I put on a smile for the little girl hoping she would believe the lie.

Anne was smarter then I gave her credit for...

"So was that spiky orange haired guy in the suit your partner's boyfriend? Do you two like each other? It was so cute when he saved you during the fight!", Anne squeeled giggling and making me blush furiously denying her whole idea.

Luckily Samual's wife, Marianne, stopped the girl by clearing her thought and giving her a hard look. When Anne had fallen silent playing some kind of guessing game with her brother, the women turned her attention to me with a soft knowing smile. "You know you can talk to me about whats really going on dear. As one women to the next I might be able to help you by offering you some advice if you'd allow me. I promise I've been around long enough to understand quite a few matters when those matters have to do with a young girl's heart...man or friend related. But I take it that it's both for you."

I stared down at my hands on my lap taking a breath.

**-Lucy's Continued Explanation-**

**The restaurant Loke and I went to was a small outdoors-like place that apparently was a popular place in the spa town. Banners with the name of the place hung outside blocking the view in from the street a little bit. I looked down the length of the bar with a slightly annoyed look at the orange haired ring wizard a few seats down. "You know you don't have to sit so far away like that.", I called completely ignoring the silent chef with the freaky large forehead behind the counter.**

**"Oh right! Sorry", Loke rubbed the back of his head nervously as I got up from my seat and moved down to one of the empty ones beside him. Behind us Plue and Happy were sharing drinks sitting on top of one of the smaller round tables that populated the rest of the restaurant.**

**I glanced at the wizard sighing running my thumb over the sides of my glass, as a small silence passed between us. "You know something's been bothering me for awhile now. Is it true that you've had a bad history with Celestial Wizards? If you don't want to tell me I can respect that, but I don't think it's fair of you to judge me just because I am one.", I took a sip of my glass not really expecting an answer but I just thought that I'd try anyway.**

**"Yeah you're right about that. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.", the Fairy Tail wizard caught my attention looking over at me with an apologetic look,"I'm no good for you so you should just forget about me."**

**"Um...why are you giving me some lame brake up line?", I asked raising an eyebrow.**

**"That came out funny didn't it? I didn't mean it that way, I guess I was just remembering something hat happened a few years back."**

**"Can you tell me?"**

**Silence again.**

**I sighed letting the subject go. To be honest I was still curious about what my guildmate had said but Loke made it more then clear he didn't want to talk about it. I wasn't going to push anybody if they didn't want to talk about something. "Well whatever, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.", I said pushing myself away from the bar and standing up out of my seat,"This was nice. Things were starting to get a little awkward so it was nice to just sit and talk with you for awhile. Thanks again for saving me from those guys, I finally see why you're so popular with the ladies. Anyway I better get going.", I moved to walk over and leave with a now passed out Happy and Plue when something grabbed my wrist stopping me.**

**-End-**

"After that we, I guess you can say ended up spending more time together, and eventually I agreed to go out on a date with him.", I sighed leaving out details like the fact that Loke was a spirit or the whole scene by Karen's grave and waterfall. Simplifying the situation wasn't exactly the easiest thing, but I knew there was no way I could tell Marianne the whole truth. This made things a lot easier.

Marianne listened to my explanation before grinning when I was finished shaking her head laughing. "Oh Lucy dear sounds like you got your pretty little self into quite a bit of trouble haven't you?", she said with a warm tone in her voice, "I'm sorry to say that you'll have to let this thing with this Loke fellow run it's course on it's own...I promise things will look up once they do after you let them work themselves out. There's no two ways about that. However I might be able to help with your partner problems with a little plan I like to call "The Rebound" that has worked countless times for me."

**Okay so I know that there was a lot more to that and the next episode that are important, but I decided to cut it and have Lucy stop where she did for her explanation to Samuel's wife. One it was just too much to type and I was lazy just wanting to get this chapter out to all of you. Two if I had gone on to another chapter with this explanation then it would have seriously screwed up how I planned out the rest of the fanfiction. Three I'm not posting whole episodes all fiction, I just want to use them as references within my original plot. I hope this was okay though. Sorry for the long chapter and I love you all!~**

**Next chapter is "Rebound".**


	14. Rebound

**Here is the next chapter all! I am sorry if this took so long and if it feels a bit rushed, but I went from being totally board out of my mind to busier then a horse trainer! (bad joke I know..LOL) But I can always find time to get decent passing chapters out to my wonderful readers as long as you all keep reading and reviewing! Enjoy everybody and see you all next chapter!~**

I walk up to the room door and stop sighing trying to calm myself. I promised Samual's wife Marianne that I would at least try her Rebound method, but I wasn't exactly having a good feeling about this as I stood in front of the door to Karen's room. I was wrapped in a warm silk feeling blue robe and my blond hair was pulled out of my face in a bun which I hadn't worn since I confronted my father how long ago. Taking a deep breath accepting what I had to do, I rapped on the door. "Karen? It's Lucy. Can we talk?", I called through the door not sure what kind of answer I would get or if I would even get one. I silently hoped that this wasn't a bad mistake.

I was about to turn around and head back to my room having not had a response from the other side of the door, when a light filled the hallway. I turned around feeling relief and hope wash over me as I looked at my partner standing in the doorway to the room. She was wearing the same blue robe that I was around her and her normal hat was now missing. Karen eyed me raising an eyebrow, "What do you want Lucy? If you're here to apologize then...", she started crossing her arms but I cut her off.

"I'm not here to apologize for anything Karen. I was just heading to the spa pools and was wondering if you wanted to come along, I could use a warm bath. I figured maybe you could use a brake too from earlier.", I said smiling waiting for the green haired female wizard to say something. I was careful to keep my voice as natural as possible. After all I was trying to fix things between us, not make the situation worse...I seemed to have been doing that just fine with a bit of help from Loke from the start anyway.

Luckily the tempting draw of a long soak in a warm hot spring caused the older Celestial Wizard to agree. "All right. Taking a bath in the spa actually doesn't sound like a bad idea.", she closed the door behind her and walked off down the hallway waving behind her to me. "Coming Luce? This was your idea right?", she called back in a board tone.

Step one...check.

The relaxing spa water was a warm welcome as my partner and I both slipped into one of the misty pools up to our necks in the water. I felt the heat from the surrounding water soak through my skin and into every sore muscle from the fight with the dark wizards earlier plus the rest of the trek and sleeping on the ground. I never knew I was this sore until the heat started to wrap itself around me. I chanced a glance over at the older Celestial Wizard soaking in the water with me with the back of her head resting against the stone wall of the spa spring.

It was the perfect time for step two so I quickly removed the golden and silver keys I had brought with me and hidden on myself until then. With one more look at Karen to make sure she still wasn't paying any attention to me, "Open. Gate of the Lyre. Lyra. And Gate of the Water Bearer. Aquarius." I silently hoped that this would help at least somewhat, because the only other thing this could do was backfire and make things worse then they already were. Suddenly realizing the lack of the normal yelling and a giant wave hurtling towards me I looked at Aquarius, "You're not trying to wash me away? Where's the insults? Glares? Excuse that you have to leave because you have a date with Scorpio?!"

The sound of the doorbell and the flash of my blue-green magic circle must have caught Karen's attention even though her eyes were closed, because they snapped open and looked from one spirit to the next before landing on me. "What are they doing here!?", she demanded, "You summoned them!?"

Aquarius was reclining against the steam covered smooth rocks beside me with a wide cocky grin on her face. The urn the mermaid spirit always had with her sat on top of the rock wall beside her. "And I thought Lucy was stupid, of course she summoned us you cheap women.", the blue haired Celestial Spirit replied in a completely calm tone though her words made me moan inwardly and facepalm myself. The Celestial Spirit's words and tone had actually managed to shock the other Blue Pegasus wizard into silence for once. Aquarius looked at me, "Why would I bother attacking a dumb blond like you and waste a perfectly good time at the spa?"

Good old Aquarius. I should have known.

But I'd have to worry about the mermaid spirit later, if this plan really worked then I wouldn't be the only one that benefitted from taking Marianne's advice. Sure Lyra's harp playing as she sat on top of one of the rocks that made up the surrounding pool walls certainly helped the mood but... Deciding to act, "Hey Karen why don't you summon Aries? The more the merrier right? It's not like it could hurt anything.", I asked as innocently as I could. I bit the inside of my cheek hoping that this on top of Aquarius calling my partner cheap wasn't going to set her over the edge.

The green haired Blue Pegasus wizard held my gaze in silence for a moment apparently having completely forgotten about Aquarius's comment. I owed Lyra and Aquarius big time for their help, because Karen finally carelessly held out Aries's gate key and summoned the ram spirit. Aside from the fact that the pink haired female spirit moved a little closer towards Lyra as she played, the lyre's soft warm voice seemed strong enough to even put out Karen's fiery temper and calm Aquarius who was more dangerous then a dark guild of wizards at times. The five of us just soaked in the warm water in peaceful silence as Lyra sang.

Thank you Marianne.


	15. Battle At The Boarder

**So this was supposed to be the chapter AFTER the next chapter, but then I changed my mind by removing the chapter that I was supposed to post about Loke voiding his contract with Lucy. It was one of those spur of the moment good idea things that trip you up when you actually have to go back and think about it in more detail. So I got rid of it. I am happy to say it won't have a major effect on the plot line though or the number of chapters. As far as the chapter thing goes there will be 23 now all together in place of 24.~**

**Sorry if this is a little short...I'm not too proud of it myself but I wanted to get something out there for now.**

Two days.

It had been two days since I explained things to Loke, in other words the longest the orange haired lion spirit had gone without showing up at some point out of the blue.

That worried me.

It's not like I expected the news to go over well though in the first place. I mean when I thought about it us dating sounded crazy if it wasn't the truth. Forget the whole spirit and wizard thing, but Loke and Karen didn't exactly see eye to eye so him dating her partner only made things worse. "Stop it Lucy!", I hissed to myself under my breath, "There's nothing you can do. You told the truth and now all you can do is let this thing run it's course like Marianne said. Things'll work out, you'll see." Though I talked like I was optimistic my gut was churning like it was saying other wise.

"Hey that hurt Vinny! Stop messing with my hair and it's not funny!", Anne snapped at her now laughing little brother who had just evidently pulled her hair. She glared at the laughing little boy, "Mother make him stop!"

"Vinny. Anne. That's enough both of you or I'll have your father deal with you both.", Marianne scolded her children in a firm serious tone, "I know you're tiered of traveling like this, but we're almost at the border between Sin and Enca now. It'll be over soon."

When the wagon suddenly vered off the road and came to a stop with a jolt I got out of the wagon just in time to be pulled to the side out of the way of a flying sword by a tense Karen. I fallowed the path that the weapon had taken back through the air to a grinning man blocking the wagon's path, who materialized a sword using familiar magic. "A magic sword?! But then..." I whipped around hearing screaming and sobbing come from the carriage as the Dark Guild Plant Wizard pulled Anne from the carriage with a rough tug grinning.

"Anne! Let her go creep!", I yelled reaching for Capricorn's key from my leather pouch. These guys just never knew when to quite and their magic wasn't something to laugh at either. This new magic swordsman was just a distraction so that the Plant Wizard could get past Karen and me to get to Marianne and the kids in the carriage. I felt my hand close on the cool metal of the gate key as I made to pull it out, "Open! Gate of the Go...agh!" I was stopped in mid summon when fist shaped vines slammed themselves into me sending me flying backwards and my key pouch falling to the ground.

"Haha! Enjoy my Knuckle Plants Blondie, but I should warn you that they like to play a little rough!", the Dark Wizard laughed before taking off at a run with a struggling Anne over her shoulder down the opposite way along the path.

I pushed myself to my feet to go after the female wizard and the little girl, but was stopped in my tracks when I had to duck and roll trying to avoid being hit again by the fist-shaped vines still after me. The plants were doing everything in their power to keep me from fallowing the wizard that had cast the spell, but I wasn't giving up. Karen's hands were full enough with the magic swordsman even with Samuel's help. I was going to do whatever it took to get Anne even if I had to do it myself. To attack when we were so close to successfully completing the job was seriously frustrating. We were right there on the Enca boarder with Sin and then this happens. "Out of my way you stupid plant! I don't have time for this!", I yelled at the vine pulling out my whip allowing it to fall to my side.

**Before it is brought up I know Lucy could have just picked up her key pouch and summoned Cancer to deal with the vines or one of her other spirits, but I have my reasons for having Lucy forget about her gate keys like that. As for the kidnapping deal I needed a way to separate Lucy from Karen, Samuel and his family and that is what I came up with. I choose Anne over Vinny (who it was going to be in the start) because of Anne's fear of Celestial Spirits and she thought Loke and Lucy were together.**

**Next chapter will be a battle scene. It will be "Something About Blonds". See you all then!~**


	16. Something About Blonds

**Oh my gosh this thing took forever to come up with but I finally got it! Yeah! Go me! Anyway I hope that this was worth it. I worked on this all vacation for all of you. I had to cut it a little short because this thing was going on three thousand words and I was getting seriously tiered of writing this chapter. Still a good chapter though.~**

**WARNING! LONG, SEMI-GUSHY CHAPTER AHEAD!**

I ran through the heavily wooded area clenching my teeth together as my heart beat hard against my ribs. The breeze whipped my hair around my face stinging it. My legs burned from a combination of effort and low laying branches hitting against my bear calves. Saying I was tiered of running was putting it lightly, but I wasn't going to give up until I found the dark wizard that had taken Anne. "Anne!", I yelled as I ducked low tree limbs and jumped over a few fallen logs, "Anne it's Lucy! Where are you!? Can you hear me?" If there was even a slim chance that the young girl heard me then the extra effort to yell was worth it. I just hoped that the Plant Wizard hadn't gotten too far away by now, since with magic even carrying another person with her like that wasn't much trouble. "Where's Natsu or Gajeel when you need them?", I huffed to myself wishing I had some way of tracking the wizard. I kept running until I skidded to a stop freezing in my tracks.

"Let me go right now or you'll be sorry! Daddy is going to send wizards after you and your stupid guild! Let go of me!"

"Oh shut up you little brat and stay there still like a good girl! You're such an pain in the neck!"

I hadn't been hearing things after all. That sounded like Anne's voice and the Plant Wizard's I was sure of it and it was just ahead of me. Feeling a renewed jolt of energy I took off in the direction the little girl was yelling from. When I reached the base of the mountain I pushed my way through the trees grabbing the River Of Stars at my hip lashing it out at the Plant Wizard's back. I missed the green magic circle under the female wizard until a wall of thorns blocked my whip from hitting the other wizard. "Anne are you okay?", I asked the little girl sitting tied up at the base of the rock.

"Lucy! I'm fine now!", Anne yelled brightening looking at me. The little brown haired girl stuck her tounge out at the women that took her from the carriage, "Told you stupid!", she snapped before vines wrapped around her mouth.

The dark wizard glared at her, "That's enough out of you pipsqueak, your parents should be thanking me for taking you out of their hair for as much as you talk." The older wizard turned and smirked at me crossing her arms as the thorn wall disappeared, "Well look who managed to get past my Knuckle Plants after all. Only it's too bad that coming after me on your own like that is going to be the last mistake you ever make blondie. I think I'll have a little fun with you before finishing you off.", she laughed with a grin.

"Look I'm just here for Anne, so let her go and nobody has to get hurt.", I snapped at the women knowing there wasn't much I could do to avoid a fight. I blew a strand of blond hair from my eyes not looking away from the kidnapper. My keys were missing but that didn't mean I was helpless and not going to try and get the little girl back again.

"Let her go and nobody will get hurt? Ha! Is that supposed to be some kind of threat I'm supposed to comply with or something?", the dark wizard laughed shaking her head. She waved the warning off with a smirk,"Please. You're mentor isn't here and you've seemed to have lost your precious keys, a Celestial Wizard is nothing without her spirits." The Plant Wizard raised her hand out aiming at me making me narrow my eyes. A green magic circle appeared in front of her outstretched hand,"But if you insist on fighting then I guess I don't have a choice. Plant Magic: Thorn Cyclone!"

"Lucy get down!"

I didn't bother questioning the new urgent sounding voice when it yelled at me to get down. I sunk on the grassy ground to my knees ducking my head covering it with my hands instantly. I felt a rush of a breeze pass me and caught sight of that tail end of a suit and flash of light briefly, as Loke knocked the thorns back with a Regulus powered kick to each. That was the second time that the lion spirit showed up exactly when I needed him. Pushing myself back onto my feet I looked at Loke, "Thanks for that Leo. Though I'm a little surprised, I thought...", I thanked the Celestial Spirit cutting myself off. Suddenly worried considering I hadn't seen him in two days since explaining the truth to the Zodiac Leader, I focused eyeing him for any clues as to what he was thinking .

The orange haired spirit glanced at me with a smug grin, "Sorry it took so long. You're not hurt are you? A contract is a contract and what kind of spirit would I be if I didn't hold up my end?" At first I thought that Loke hadn't changed at all from our last time seeing each other...but I was wrong. He had changed. This wasn't the serious distant Loke I had met in my apartment but it wasn't the cautious Loke from two days ago either. So then did this mean that he trusted me now after all, even after my surely insane sounding explanation? The lion spirit glanced at me,"Are you ready Lucy?"

I looked up meeting Loke's hazel look with a brown one of my own for a minute before giving a firm nod and grin. I was more then ready for this. I was about to give the female dark wizard a hard lesson she wouldn't soon forget, and with the spirit's help, save Anne. Working with Loke felt as normal to me as summoning one of the other spirits I had a contract with like Taurus or Capricorn. My grip on the handle of the River Of Stars tightened getting ready for anything this wizard was about to send our way.

The Plant Wizard laughed,"Oh what's this? So you managed to summon a spirit to help you after all then, it's not like it's going to make much of a difference. Your spirit friend isn't going to be enough to shield you from my magic Blondie! Plant Magic: Spore Bomb-Rinka Renka!" The wizard held her arms up over her head causing large white spores to materialize around her hovering in the air. With a flick of her wrist she sent the spores careening towards Loke and me.

The Celestial Spirit used a well aimed light fueled punch to send chunks of rock from a boulder at the on coming large spores. The rubble made contact with the Plant Wizard's attack setting the spore bombs off in a series of loud explosions. The explosions created a cloud of dust in the air making it difficult to see. "Now Lucy!", yelled Loke as he ran past me headed for the enemy wizard.

"I got it!" Recognizing an opportunity I darted forward narrowing my eyes to keep the smoke from my eyes and snapped the whip at the dark wizard general direction. When I thought I had caught the other wizard I yanked back on the weapon in a rough jerk to pull her out into the open,"You're going to pay for all the trouble you caused this family and for taking Anne! Get out here!" The smoke from the fallen rubble still hung thick in the air making me caught and seeing clearly hard, but I didn't stop pulling back on the whip to draw whoever or whatever I had caught out into the open. I couldn't help but grin when I pulled the brown haired dark wizard out of the smoke struggling against the whip.

When the lion spirit jumped heading for her, I watched as a grin appeared on the dark wizard's face. I had a twisting feeling in my gut just a little too late to react. The recoiling of the whip's chord and feeling of being pulled towards the Plant Wizard confirmed my thoughts...she had managed to piece things together about the spirit and me from our last fight. Before I could warn the Celestial Spirit though, the dark female wizard jerked me to her side causing Loke to purposefully redirect his punch into the forest floor. It didn't matter if it was a cheap trick because it worked in the dark wizard's favor. I wriggled around trying to free myself but the Plant Wizard's grip just tightened on me. Frustrated I glanced over in the spirit's direction making my chest jump into my throught.

The female dark wizard smirked keeping her grip tight on me completely oblivious. "You're not going anywhere without me Blondie, I did a little research on your magic see. Celestial Spirits aren't allowed to harm their masters in any way and have to obey their orders.", the Plant Wizard looked from the orange haired spirit to me,"So you're going to tell your spirit to leave and then you're coming with me and the girl to make sure there aren't any surprises. Understand deary?"

I couldn't help but laugh shaking my head at the women's plan. It would have been a good one had she'd been dealing with another Celestial Spirit. Too bad for her she wasn't and keeping me hostage like she was would only make things worse for her. I glanced up twisting my head to get a better look at the kidnapper grinning,"You might have figured out my magic but you're too stupid to see your own mistake. Leo isn't like other Celestial Spirits and I'm not his master, but we are partners." I said closing my eyes looking away from the confused wizard. Although I couldn't see with my eyes shut tight, I was aware of the sudden glow of light knowing what was coming next.

As expected the area around the mountain's base became shrouded in light that was hurting my eyes even with keeping them closed. I pictured light surrounding the Zodiac Leader and a yellow magic circle appearing under his feet. It wasn't his most powerful attack by any means, but it was one of them. "Lion Brilliance!", came Loke's yell interrupting my thoughts as the lion spirit sent the light out from him with a force.

With the burst of bright light created by the Zodiac Leader's spell, I felt the Plant Wizard's grip around me slacken. Not that I blamed her with the light being strong enough to temporary blind an opponent if they weren't prepared for blindness would only last for a few seconds but that was all the time I needed to turn the tables on the fight. Being careful to keep my eyes closed I pulled myself free from the female dark wizard before feeling to grab her arm,"Lucy Kick! That's what you get for messing with a Celestial Wizard and spirit! You dark wizards never learn!", I yelled aiming and feeling my hard kick context with the dark wizard's midsection sending her to the ground on her back. My eyes opened and fixed themselves on the knocked out wizard laying back flat passed out on the forest floor. Looking away from the fallen plant wizard I looked at Loke smiling relaxing a bit, "You know you shouldn't scare me like that. I was starting to worry you wouldn't come back."

"I'll be there any time you need me. It looks like there's something about blondes that makes them targets for dark wizards.", joked Loke reaching into his pocket and pulling out a familiar brown case holding it out to me, "I think you dropped these and what's a Celestial Wizard without her spirits? Though you seemed to be doing okay with that Lucy Kick."

I felt a warm flush start to color my cheeks before shrugging it away smiling and giving the Celestial Spirit a thumbs up. He didn't remember the half of it and Lucy Kick was actually a useful move. I laughed, "Yeah well I can't always depend on my magic right, besides it's worked more then you think. Thanks for the help Leo and getting my keys for me too. I must have dropped them back when I was fighting those vines...that would have been ugly." I took the brown leather key pouch from him and re-latched it to it's normal place at my hip. Thinking about how I dropped the gate keys made me stop and moan shaking my head a bit as it reminded me of Aquarius. The mermaid spirit had delt with me before when I dropped her key and I wasn't exactly looking forward to being punished by the Water Magic using spirit again either. But my thoughts about the blue haired female spirit was interrupted by a high pitched squeal of excitement.

"That was so cool the way you guys worked together so easily like that!", squeeled Anne with delight and a lit up face watching the orange haired spirit and me together. The little girl then turned her attention to Loke,"The way you just came to Lucy's rescue out of nowhere like that was so brave too! I didn't know that Celestial Spirits could be romantic or strong like that, now I want to be a Celestial Wizard too so I can meet a spirit like you!" Not losing momentum the ten year old whipped her attention to me as I replaced the whip on my hip. Anne grabbed Loke's hand tilting her head to look at me,"Lucy can I please meet your other spirits? Not just the other silver key ones but the gold ones too. You're lucky. I hope me and my spirits work good together like you and your's does when I become a guild wizard."

Loke placed a firm but gentle hand on the ten year old's head smiling, "You want to be a guild wizard and a Celestial Wizard hunh? You've got something to look up to and it's not as easy as it looks. Not everybody can handle a lot of power like that. You're going to have to work hard to be a wizard, right Lucy?" He gave me a look when he said the last part and I knew that was meant more for me then it was for Anne.

"That's right but I think you can do it.", I nodded feeling a small tightening sensation in my chest. I blinked taken aback by the ten year old's sudden change of attitude towards Celestial Spirits and magic in general. Especially since not too long ago the same little girl was terrified of any spirit that wasn't Plue or Lyra. Seeing Loke and Anne laughing, I grinned a little bit crossing my arms over my chest. It looked like things had surprisingly worked out after all just like Marianne said things would. The rebound really did work in more ways then one.

**Any of it OOC? Let me know please! I was worried about that towards the end mostly. ****The next chapter will be "Welcome To Enca, Blue Pegasus!" I hope to see all then. **

**Loke and Lucy: WHAT!? WE'RE FINALLY TOGETHER AGAIN AND YOU'RE STOPPING IT THERE!? WHAT KIND OF SICK TWISTED WRITER ARE YOU WOLF!?**

**Me: Watch it! I can still change things around and kill you guys off you know!**

**Lucy: *shuts up and hides behind Loke***

**Loke: *laughs* As a Celestial Spirit I'm immortal remember Wolf?**

**Me: Oh yeah oh mighty Zodiac Leader? Did you even watch Episodes 31 and 32? **

**Loke: *pales***

**Me: *sighs* How did I get stuck with these guys?**


	17. Welcome To Enca, Blue Pegasus!

**Here is the next chapter you guys. I am so glad that all of you are really liking this fanfiction, because it makes writing it for all of you just that much more fun.~**

Enca was a small island to the south of Sin that looked a lot like a rock in the middle of the ocean from a boat's view point. Luckily, thanks to Sin being located on a peninsula and the traffic running between the island and the mainland, it wasn't too difficult to take a ship over to our destination. I had never been outside of Fiore let alone to an island before so I wasn't sure what to expect when we arrived, but for now I settled with enjoying the boat ride to the island. I leaned over the railing of the ship with my forearms resting on the metal bar. The salty sea air whipped my blond hair around my face as I kept my eyes on the sparkling blue surface of the ocean, just barely being able to see what looked like a large rock a distance in front of the boat.

Now that Loke and I were friends again and had gotten back to our contract I felt better then I had the past few days. Sure the lion spirit hadn't mentioned anything about the fact that we had been dating, but I was just glad to have one of my closets most trusted friends back again...and have his personality back to the way I remembered it. It was a super relief that made me feel like I could breathe easier then I had since that first day I woke up to Karen being in my apartment. I wanted to get back to our old relationship, but it was going to take a little bit more time to re build it from the ground up again. Not that it bothered me.

"Lucy! Stop daydreaming and let's go before we leave you behind."

I blinked as everything around me started to come back into focus again. The boat had stopped moving and was now stopped next to a dock with a metal plank reaching from the boat's deck to the surface of the dock. Men were tying off large thick ropes to a couple of poles to keep the ship from floating out to sea again. I turned around just in time to catch Karen's back disappear with Samuel and his family into the crowd leaving the ship for the cobblestone streets of the town's pier. Realization that the boat was emptying fast of people already, I pushed myself off of the railing and made my way over to the crowd to push my way to Karen's side. I let go a sigh of relief once we were off of the boat glad that I had found my way through the crowd after all. I stood beside my teammate across from the client and his family waiting, "We should escort you to your home and finish the job. If we don't then it'll feel like we didn't do what we were hired for and we couldn't take a reward for something we didn't finish."

Samual laughed shaking his head as he passed the reward sum of jewels to the older green haired Celestial Wizard beside me. "Oh no please Lucy. You two have completed your job by helping me and my family to arrive here safely, not to mention saving our Anne.", the man said placing a warm hard around his daughter's shoulder to pull her close to him, "My place isn't far from here so we'll be just fine on our own now. I will give you two ladies a piece of advice though: if you're staying a little while then take a look at the town here around the docks. It's not exactly a large town but it's nice to take some time and walk around for a little while."

"Thank you for helping my big sister.", Vinny smiled tugging on my shirt in a childish cute attempt to get my attention.

The young girl took my hand pulling me down eye level with her. There was a mischievous look in her big normally sweet eyes this time that made me sweat a bit. "Good luck with that guy in the suit Lucy.", Anne whispered in my ear, "And don't worry because I won't tell Vinny, mommy or daddy. It'll be our secret."

I winked at Anne with a grin at how innocent she was worried about keeping a secret despite what she had just gone through, before both of our groups went their different ways. Samuel and his family headed back to their home, while Karen and I decided to take the client's advice and look around the Enca town a little bit. The two of us covered most of the town together going into shops and talking to a couple of the merchants running them. There were a surprising verity of stores in the little Enca town from everyday basic needs to a couple magic shops we stopped in and looked around. The people were welcoming and the town was pretty. But that was before I left Karen outside of a store surrounded by men with heart shaped eyes again and my fellow guildmate acting coy with a grin on her face as usual. After about a week with the green haired Blue Pegasus member I had gotten used to the constant presence and questions from men, but that didn't mean I was going to stand there and take it if I didn't have to. After spending a week on the road with her, also knowing I'd have to do the same on the way back home, I decided to sneak off for some time exploring the town on my own for some fresh air.

_"It looks like there's something about blondes that make them targets for dark wizards...I'll be there any time that you need me." _The words caught me so off my guard that I stumbled forward after missing a step. I shut my eyes tight waiting for the feeling of concrete against skin. But instead of hitting the cobblestone streets, I felt a firm grip around my arm before being pulled up right again. The firm grip switched from my arm to around my back and something that brought back memories of silk gowns pressed the side of my face. I opened my eyes finding myself cheek up against something made of dark red fabric...it was a tie sitting over a white dress shirt. When I looked up there were a pair of shoulders covered by a dark suit jacket and a smug grin spread across my friend's face. "You know you should really stop showing up like this. It's not that I don't like it or anything, but it would be nice to know that you're planning on showing up before you do sometimes.", I said looking up at the Zodiac spirit.

Loke laughed but otherwise ignored my comment as he started easing me back onto my feet standing up right again, "What? No 'nice save Leo' this time? It's strange though, it seems I have no problem traveling between our worlds without Karen having to summon me." The Celestial Spirit let me stand on my own again but kept one arm draped around my shoulder in a casual manner. His appearance had also changed somewhat: his clothes was still the same suit, but his hair was less spiked then before...shorter then normal. "So Lucy what are we going to do first and I hope you don't have any plans for after you get back to the guild right away.", he said abruptly as we started to walk down the town street with his arm draped around the back of my shoulders.

Not that I noticed that too much.

Loke's comment about staying free after we returned to the guild caught my attention. I turned my head looking up questioningly at Loke, "What are you talking about Leo? I was going to take a hot bath after this week." I felt people along the path cast glances and smiles at us but ignored them wanting to know what Loke meant by his comment instead.

"Because we're going out.", said Loke turning to look at me with his lips pulling themselves into mischievous grins just like Anne's had been a little while ago,"We are dating after all right? Since I don't remember our first date, then we'll have it once you and Karen return to the guild."

**And that's that folks. I am going to be going away for a week and I am not going to be able to post new updates for any of my fanfictions, but I promise to have the next chapter up for all of you when I get back. The next chapter is "The Brightest Star Is...Lucy!?"**


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